Bob’s Very Special Glazed Christmas Ham Recipe

With over 40 years’ experience as a Chef and in the catering industry, delivering delicious food to hungry residents at the annual Sea Winds community Christmas Party is not only a breeze but a pleasure to long standing resident, Bob.

Bob shares his very special glazed ham recipe to help inspire your Christmas cooking this year.  This recipe is a very special Christmas recipe to Bob as it was his grandmother’s recipe. Enjoy!

• Whole or half ham (cooks’ preference!)
• 1 ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup pineapple juice
• ¼ cup orange juice
• ¼ teaspoon whole cloves
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Step 1
Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Place an oven shelf in the lowest position and remove all other shelves. Line a large baking dish with 2 layers of non-stick baking paper.

Step 2
Prepping the ham: Carefully run the knife around the edge of the ham skin, gently run your fingers under the skin and lift the rind off in 1 piece whilst leaving the fat. Score the fat in a diamond pattern, about 5mm deep. Stud the centres of the diamonds with cloves. Transfer to prepared dish.

Step 3
The glaze: In a large pot combine the brown sugar, pineapple juice, orange juice, cloves, and dijon mustard, bringing to the boil and stirring. Simmer until glaze thickens slightly. Poor one-third of the glaze over the ham and save the rest of the glaze for basting every 15 minutes – it is a labour of love!

Step 4
Bake the ham in the oven for 2 hours, basting every 15 minutes. This technique will ensure you get the thickest, stickiest, most caramelised glaze all over your ham.

Interested to learn more? You can read how Bob has been cooking up a storm at Sea Winds in a previous article here.