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Ham Glaze

Updated Oct 21, 2024
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Nothing adds more flavor to a holiday ham than a delicious brown sugar ham glaze. If you're looking for the perfect combination of sweet and savory, then a brown sugar ham glaze is just what you need. This simple yet flavorful recipe is guaranteed to impress your family and friends.

It's hard to believe that something so delicious could be so easy and require so few ingredients, but that’s exactly the case with this ham glaze recipe.

The brown sugar ham glaze creates a sticky, caramelized coating that perfectly complements the salty savoriness of ham. Whether it's for a holiday feast or a special family or friend dinner, this recipe is a surefire way to elevate your ham to a whole new level of deliciousness. Give it a try and watch as your guests go back for seconds! Enjoy!

How to Make Ham Glaze

With only a few ingredients this ham glaze recipe is super simple to make. Whether it’s your first time baking a ham or you’re a holiday ham pro, our step-by-step instructions are sure to result in a memorable meal. Take a look at our quick overview of how to make our easy ham glaze, then read on for the full ingredients list and recipe.

Prepare the Ham

Use a sharp knife to score the outside of the ham with quarter-inch-deep parallel lines, one inch apart. Then score diagonally in the other direction to create a diamond pattern. Place the ham on a roasting rack in a shallow roasting pan (no need to grease or spray), and heat in the oven.   

Make the Glaze

In a small saucepan, mix brown sugar, corn syrup, cider vinegar, and mustard. Heat until the sugar is dissolved.

Glaze the Ham

During the end of ham baking process, you’ll apply a generous amount of glaze all over the ham with a pastry brush three times, in ten-minute increments. This allows the brown sugar glaze to build up on the ham and get nice and sticky.

Putting the Glaze on the Ham

You’ll notice in our ham glaze recipe that we have you brush the ham with the glaze three times during the end of its baking process.

While this may seem like a strange thing do, it allows the glaze to build up on the ham, which gives it more flavor and creates a delightfully sticky coating. We wait until the end of the cooking process to ensure the glaze doesn’t burn during the ham’s time in the oven.

Because the glaze contains brown sugar and corn syrup, it can easily burn if applied to the ham too early. By waiting, we can still give our ham a delicious, caramelized finish without any of the bitterness that would come if we burned the glaze. 

What to Serve with Glazed Ham

With a ham glaze recipe this easy, you’ll have loads of time for side dishes.

Mashed Potatoes are always a good choice, and this smooth and creamy version is one of our top-rated ones.

Instant Pot Three-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese is a cheesy explosion and is a natural to serve with ham.

3-Step Lemon-Pepper Asparagus is a quick, easy and elegant option, and no ham dinner would be complete without crescent rolls. Try this delicious slice and serve garlic butter crescents version for a fun twist on a holiday classic.  

Frequently Asked Questions

Ham Glaze

  • Prep Time 25 min
  • Total 3 hr 0 min
  • Ingredients 5
  • Servings 12
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Ingredients

  • 6 to 8 lb fully cooked smoked bone-in ham
  • 1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/4 cup cider vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Instructions

  • Step 
    1
    Heat oven to 325°F. Place ham on rack in shallow roasting pan. Roast 12 to 16 minutes per pound or until instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of ham reads 120°F.
  • Step 
    2
    Remove ham from oven. Pour drippings from pan. Cut fat surface of ham lightly in uniform diamond shapes.
  • Step 
    3
    Meanwhile, in small saucepan, mix brown sugar, corn syrup, cider vinegar, and Dijon mustard. Cook over low heat 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until brown sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
  • Step 
    4
    Brush 1/2 cup of the glaze on ham. Roast uncovered 10 minutes longer, and brush another 1/2 cup glaze on ham. Roast for another 10 to 15 minutes or until thermometer reads 135°F. Brush remaining glaze on ham. Cover ham with tent of foil; let stand about 10 minutes or until thermometer reads 140°F.
  • Step 
    5
    Place ham on carving board or platter face down. Using sharp carving knife, cut in half next to bone.
  • Step 
    6
    Place boneless side of ham fat side up; cut slices. Cut remaining slices from bone-in portion, cutting away from bone.

Nutrition

290 Calories
7g Total Fat
26g Protein
30g Total Carbohydrate
26g Sugars

Tips from the

Pillsbury Kitchens

  • tip 1
    If ham could have a best friend, it would be pineapple. For that reason, we love to add pineapple to our brown sugar glaze recipe. Follow the recipe but eliminate the cider vinegar and add 1 cup of crushed, drained canned pineapple along with the brown sugar, corn syrup...
  • tip 2

    You can substitute a boneless ham for the bone-in ham in this recipe, although you will have to adjust cooking times, as boneless hams typically take less time to cook than bone-in hams, about 15 minutes of cooking time per pound.  

  • tip 3
    While baked ham is ultra delicious with our ham glaze recipe, you may still have leftovers. Never fear though, there are an endless number of uses for any extra ham.Ham salad, ham sandwiches or ham and cheese omelets are a few ham fan favorites, but we also love to use ...
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