Hi I’m Erin. Christmas ham is a tradition for many families. But did you know the tradition
started centuries ago in Germany as tribute to harvest and fertility. Up next I’ll show
you how to make a ham that will leave your mouth watering and your guests begging for
the recipe, on Our Wyoming Life
Ham has been eaten for Christmas dinner for centuries. In fact an estimated 318 million
pounds of ham are purchased every year during the holiday season. That is an insane amount
of ham! In the 1950’s ham popularity was at an all-time high. Often covered in cloves,
canned pineapple slices, bright red maraschino cherries and coated with a brown sugar glaze.
Now days there are ham recipes all over the internet and cookbooks. Canned pineapple and
sugary cherries are considered a bit old fashioned. But a glazed ham can still be delicious and
it doesn’t take much work at all.
In all honestly most of the time when we eat ham I don’t do anything to it. Mike and
I like it just the way it is. Especially since the pork was raised right here on the ranch
and the flavor of the pork is amazing and the meat is always tender. Once in a while
though, I do like to change things up. When I think about what I want in a ham glaze it
has to have orange flavor in it and it has to be both sweet and savory.
When I started working on the perfect ham glaze recipe the first thing I did is hit
the internet and look at a ton of recipes. And then I start to decide what flavors are
my favorites and put them together in a way that suits my personal taste. I’ve come
up with something that I think you’re going to like.
This recipe works great with any precooked ham. Doesn’t matter if it’s spiral cut
ham or not. In fact you don’t even have to use a whole ham, you can use a ham slice
or a ham steak.
First step is to line a baking pan with tin foil. The glaze is sticky and sugary and will
be a mess to clean up. Some tin foil will save the day! The ham is place cut side down
on the pan and a diamond pattern is scored into the fat with a sharp knife. This allows
the glaze flavor to penetrate the meat. If you have a spiral cut ham you can skip the
scoring.
Now the glaze can be mixed up. This is enough glaze for about a 16 pound ham. Today our
ham is about half that size. If you’re making a smaller ham its easy enough to half the
recipe or do what we do and make the full recipe and keep the leftover glaze for when
you enjoy your ham the next day.
8 ounces of Orange Marmalade goes into a bowl. I actually made this Marmalade myself to sell
at farmers market so it’s homemade and delicious! 1 cup of brown sugar.
¼ c Dijon mustard ¼ c whole grain mustard
3 garlic gloves grated 2 oranges zested
Juice from 1 orange Just a tiny pinch of kosher salt to balance
all the sweet in the glaze. Be careful not to overdo the salt since ham can be quite
salty on it’s own.
Mix it all together and pour a generous amount on the ham. A basting brush will help get
into all the nooks and crannies.
The ham then goes into a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes per pound for a fully precooked
ham. Or until the internal temperature reached 140 degrees.
Every 30 minutes or so more glaze can be added to the ham. Once it’s done pull it out of
the oven and let it sit for a few minutes before it’s sliced. Resting the ham will
help keep it juicy.
A few simple ingredients can the change your ham dinner experience. The glaze is sweet
and savory with just a bit of garlic coming through and little bitterness from the marmalade.
For me it hits all the right flavor notes. Plus when it comes out of the oven it’s
stunning. It’s definitely something worth putting at the center of your holiday table.
I hope that you give this recipe a try and that you love it as much as I do. To make
your ham even better find one that’s locally raised and help support a local farmer! You
can find the recipe below in the description. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and
Instagram for pictures and more fun stuff that you can’t find on YouTube. If you haven’t
subscribed already please do. We have new videos 3 times per week for you. Mike’s
ranch video is out on Sunday morning. Tuesday Mike has more ranch work with the project
list and Thursday you’ll find a video from me in the garden or kitchen or we will live
stream and answer all of your questions. And in two weeks we will find out how the
winter growing is going in the high tunnel and hopefully harvesting crops for our December
farmers’ market. There’s always lots going on here on the
ranch, but everyday it’s worth it. Until next time, thanks for joining us in
our Wyoming life