Orange and Brown Sugar-Glazed Ham

This recipe uses an easy-to-cook spiral cut ham, but ditches the glaze packet that comes with it. Use this homemade glaze instead, which elevates flavor with ingredients like fresh orange juice, apple cider vinegar, creole mustard, brown sugar and cloves. This orange and brown sugar glazed ham makes a great centerpiece to a holiday meal, like Easter or Christmas, but is also great for a weeknight dinner. I’ve even done it with a small picnic ham for 2-4 people (shown in the loaf pan below) and it’s just as delicious!

Ingredients and Equipment Notes

• Spiral Cut Ham – These should be easy to find, especially during any holiday season. They are already cured and just require heating. Make sure you buy one that is already spiral cut. It will come with a little spice packet, and you won’t need that.
  
• Creole Mustard– If you don’t have creole mustard, any whole grain mustard will be just fine, and even dijon.
  
• Apple Cider Vinegar – I recommend Bragg’s brand apple cider vinegar.
  
• Orange Juice – Make sure you grab a fresh orange for this recipe, since you’ll also be using the zest.
  
• Bacon Drippings – I featured bacon olive oil from our olive oil company when I created this recipe, but since we aren’t selling it anymore, you could add in some bacon drippings for great flavor. If that’s an annoying step for you, don’t worry about it and omit!
  
• Roasting Pan– I like to elevate the ham in a roasting pan. If you don’t have one, this is the one we’ve consistently recommended. It is clearly not the one I have, but it is the one I wish I had.

Instructions

1. Line a heavy-duty roasting pan with aluminum foil and place the rack inside of the foil.
   
2. Place the ham, fatty side up, on the rack (but also make sure the slices are vertical and the flat end isn’t face-down–you want that fat to melt and run between the slices to keep things moist. Sorry. I had to use the m-word.)
   
3. Insert a roasting thermometer (this is the best one I’ve ever used!) into the thickest part of the ham that has not been sliced.
   
4. Place the ham in the heated oven and roast for 1 1/2-2 hours or until the thermometer reaches 140-145.

5. While the ham is roasting, combine the brown sugar, cloves, juice, zest, mustard, and vinegar, and whisk in bacon drippings, if using.

6. When the ham has about 30 minutes to go, remove the ham and brush the glaze on the outside of the ham, all the way down into the slices. Place the ham back in the oven and cook until done.

7. When done, remove from the oven and serve with ham dipping sauce explained below.

Dipping Sauce

While the ham is finishing off, whisk together the BEST part of ham at my house growing up. It’s a simple sauce made from mayonnaise, mustard, and a little apple cider vinegar, but it was seriously my favorite part of ham as a kid–we couldn’t have ham without it. You can use regular yellow mustard, but I love the deeper flavor of the ground mustard.

And there you have it–the BEST ham and the EASIEST holiday dinner in all the land. Promise. This will make a lot–6 pounds will serve in the 20 people range. You can also freeze the leftovers for 3-4 months.

Serving Suggestions

If you’re looking for side dishes, I went old-school OBB and served them with these Stuffed Blue Cheese Potatoes (although Funeral Potatoes are always an excellent choice), Bacon-Wrapped Green Beans, and this Sweet Cornbread.

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