Last Updated on 14th September 2022 by
You could pay plenty of money for a honey glazed ham in the grocery or you can learn how to make it yourself. The honey glaze takes an already sweet type of meat and makes it even sweeter and tastier. I’m going to share with you a method for how to make honey glazed ham at home, as well as a few variations so you can make it to your liking.
Honey Glazed Ham Recipe
Let’s start off with a really simple recipe so you understand the basics before you move on to something a little more complicated. This is not a tough dish to make, and it’s surprisingly delicious for how easy it is to put together.
Ingredients:
- 5lb whole ham (guide for frozen ham)
- 1/4 cup of dark corn syrup
- 1/4 cup of whole cloves
- 2 cups of honey
- 2/3 cup of butter
Directions:
- Start by warming up your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Score the ham, and then place whole cloves into the cuts.
- Put the ham into a deep baking pan that has been lined with aluminium foil.
- Using a double boiler, heat up your honey, corn syrup, and butter to make the glaze. Make sure this stays warm while you’re baking a ham.
- Take some of the glaze and brush it over the ham and then bake your ham for an hour and 15 minutes, after the oven is heated up.
- Every 10 to 15 minutes, brush the ham with glaze.
- For the last five minutes of baking the ham, activate the broiler setting on your oven to make sure the glaze caramelizes. Then, take the ham out of the oven and allow it to sit for a couple minutes before you serve it.
We also have a cooking guide for bone in ham that you can find here which gives you a handy guide for how long to cook a ham.
How to Score Honey Glazed Ham
Now you know how to make a honey glazed ham, but I want to talk for a second about scoring the ham.
This may be a technique you’re not very familiar with. What you need to do is first cut the fat layer off the top of the ham. You’ll slice along the top of the ham and then peel the fat layer back.
You can save that to cover the ham in the fridge later for storage or get rid of it completely. Then take a sharp knife and cut into the meat along the top of the ham. You’re making cuts that are about half an inch deep, as you don’t want the ham meat to split open while it cooks.
Cut in diagonal lines across the ham and then cut in the opposite direction to make diamond cuts all over the top of the ham.
How to Make Honey Cured Double Glazed Ham
I’ve given you a method for how to make a honey glazed ham in the oven, but I want to share with you a variation on this that is known as honey cured double glazed ham.
This simply means that you’re glazing the ham twice, not quite in the same way as we kept glazing the ham up above for that recipe. What you’re doing instead is that you are allowing the glaze to cure or dry completely, and then you’re glazing the ham again.
You can do this by glazing the ham before you cook it and then storing it in the fridge. Then, before you cook the ham the oven, put on another layer of glaze.
This gives you a layer of dry and then wet glaze and really boosts the flavor.
How to Make Honey Glazed Ham with Pineapples
You may have seen honey glazed ham with pineapples on it before and wondered about how those are incorporated into the dish. When are they added- during the baking process or after the ham comes out of the oven?
Actually, it should be added to the ham before it goes into the oven. The pineapple pieces can be secured all over the surface of the ham with toothpicks. You can add as many or as few round slices of pineapple as you like to your ham. Some people also put a cherry in the middle of the pineapple slices, securing those with the toothpicks as well.
The reason for putting the pineapple on the ham before it cooks is that this allows the pineapple juices to seep into and bake into the ham. It makes for a more flavorful dish.
How to Make Honey Glazed Ham in the Slow Cooker
You don’t have to use the oven to make honey glazed ham. You could use a slow cooker or crockpot, and I’ll show you how to do that.
How to make honey glazed ham in crock pot? Start by spraying down the inside of the slow cooker with the cooking spray of your choice. Place the ham into the slow cooker with the flat side facing down and heat up your glaze separately in a saucepan. Pour the glaze on the ham and then cover the crock pot or slow cooker with the lid. You want to cook on the low heat setting for five to six hours.
Several times during the cooking time, you should pour some more glaze over the ham with a basting brush. Be sure to let your ham cool for a few minutes before cutting it and serving it.
How to Make Brown Sugar Honey Glazed Ham
You can prepare your glaze according to the directions I gave you up above in the first recipe, or you can find another glaze recipe online that you like. One variation on the blaze that I use sometimes is a mixture of brown sugar, Dijon mustard, honey, and water.
If you want to know how to make brown sugar honey glazed ham, simply mix together 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 1/2 cup of honey, and 1/4 cup of water. You can make your glaze from this and then glaze your ham according to the directions I’ve given you already.
I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!
