Maple Brown Sugar Glaze for Ham
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Maple Brown Sugar Glaze for Ham is a show-stopper as a holiday dinner and easy enough to make for Sunday suppers. Knowing how to cook a spiral ham with homemade maple brown sugar glaze in the
What is a spiral ham?
A genuine spiral ham comes from the pork butt. Despite being referred to as the shoulder, it’s actually from the rump and contains a bone. This bone helps the meat hold its shape during cooking and adds depth to dishes made from leftover ham, such as 15 Bean Soup. A rich maple and brown sugar glaze can elevate its flavor even more.
Ingredients
The full recipe for Maple Brown Sugar Glaze with ingredient amounts and instructions is at the bottom of this post. You can save a tree and the recipe to your personal and private recipe box here on Call Me PMc. This way, you’ll never misplace it.
- 9-pound ham (fully cooked, spiral sliced)
- brown sugar
- maple syrup
- Dijon mustard
- garlic
- cloves ground
- allspice
- pineapple bits optional
Equipment
How to cook a spiral ham
A spiral ham can be cooked in a Dutch oven, a deep skillet, or a roasting pan. The size of your tool will depend upon the size of your ham. For a nine-pound spiral ham like the one in this recipe, you’ll need at least a 5-quart
The best part is applying a maple brown sugar glaze during cooking will enhance its flavor.
Most store-bought hams are precooked. So what you’re really doing is just warming it back up and caramelizing the glaze on the outside. Bake your spiral ham at 250F for 15 minutes per pound, uncovered for the first half and covered for the second, for best results. Bake until the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer reaches 140F.
Keeping your ham from getting dry
The key here is low and slow, as well as moisture locking. My secret to success is a low oven 225-275F, uncovered for the first half of the allotted time and covered with aluminum foil for the second half. Make sure to use a maple brown sugar glaze to keep it moist and flavorful.
When to add the Maple Brown Sugar Glaze
You’ll only need about 20 minutes for the glaze to set and caramelize on the spiral ham. So wait until your ham has reached 140F internally, remove it from the oven, glaze, and set it back in the oven for 20 minutes.
Maple Brown Sugar Glaze perfection
The juices will collect at the bottom when baking a ham in a
How to cut a spiral ham
Spiral hams come precut into horizontal slices around the bone. Cut from top to bottom when they’re done cooking, and the slices will come off easily. The slices coated with maple brown sugar glaze make for an appetizing presentation.
How much spiral ham per person
A serving of ham is 6 ounces per person. This recipe for the 9-pound ham will serve approximately 22 according to serving sizes. However, this includes the bone weight and the assumption that you and your guests can keep yourselves limited to just one slice. I know I can’t!
Make it a Meal
What to serve with Maple Brown Sugar Glaze Spiral Ham
Ham is a pretty hearty meat and often has honey or maple glaze on it to make it sticky and sweet. The best pairings will be more on the warm or citrus side to keep the ham the star of the show. Excellent side dish choices for ham are baked camembert, blanched broccoli, butternut squash, dinner rolls, a winter harvest salad, or a light carrot soup.
What to do with Maple Brown Sugar Glaze Spiral ham leftovers
One of my favorite things about large cuts of meat such as pulled pork, holiday ham, or Thanksgiving turkey is the leftovers. You take one day to cook a bunch of meat that can be enjoyed in quick dishes for the rest of the week. There’s one day of anticipation waiting for meat to cook low and slow, which means a week of fantastic flavor-filled foods cooked quickly for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Using a maple brown sugar glaze can elevate these leftovers even more.
Maple Brown Sugar Glaze for Ham
Ingredients
- 1 9-pound ham fully cooked, spiral sliced
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ teaspoon cloves ground
- ⅓ teaspoon allspice
Instructions
- Bake your spiral ham at 250℉ for 15 minutes per pound, uncovered for the first half and covered for the second, for best results.
- Place ham on a baking dish.
- Heat for 1.5 to 2 hours. See the chart above for how long to heat your ham. Cover ham snugly with foil. Bake until the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer reaches 140F.
- Open foil or bag and roll down to expose ham.
- Pour the glaze over the ham and in between the spiral slices.
- Bake until glaze sets, about 10 minutes.
- Remove the ham from the oven and baste the ham with the glaze and drippings in the bottom of the pan. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
- *Before serving, I like to drizzle the reserved glaze over the ham, but you can set it on the table for everyone to glaze each serving if desired.
GLAZE:
- Place brown sugar, maple syrup, and remaining glaze ingredients in a saucepan.
- Heat on medium-low until sugar dissolves.
- Remove glaze from heat.
- *Remove 1/2 cup of glaze and set aside (for basting at the end).
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.
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