Honey Baked Ham - Spiral Cut Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes (15 minutes per 500g/1.1lb of boneless ham)
Serves: 6-8 people
Ingredients Needed
- 1.7kg/3.7lb boneless ham, smoked (see ingredient note above)
- 120g/4ozs butter, cubed
- 60g/2ozs brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 200g/7ozs honey
- 50ml/1.7ozs orange, pineapple or mango juice
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 PREPARE - Preheat oven to 135C/275F conventional or 115C/239F fan forced and have a baking dish and rack ready. Take ham out of the fridge 1 hour before cooking. If your ham already has the rind removed and has been strung, remove the string and netting from the ham. Otherwise if your ham still has the skin on it, remove it with a sharp knife and score the fat in a diamond pattern.
Step 2 CUT - Trim one side of the ham so that you get a flat surface to cut it on. Then using an electric knife, slice thin slices in the ham stopping an inch from the base. Place in a deep baking dish and add 1 cup of water. Cover tightly with two layers of foil and bake for 15 minutes.
Step 3 TEST - With the extra piece of ham already cut off, taste the ham (ham in Australia is already cooked) to see if it is salty. If it is already salty you don't need to add any salt to the glaze ingredients. I find its rare to have to add salt to ham.
Step 4 SIMMER - Place the butter, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, cloves and thyme in a small saucepan and melt the butter and stir to combine. Then add the honey and juice to the sauce and whisk in well. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until the brown sugar has melted completely. Put 1/4 cup of glaze aside for the end.
Step 5 GLAZE - Once the 15 minutes is up, glaze the ham including inside all of the slices with the glaze using a tablespoon and a knife to lift the pieces. Cover again tightly with foil and bake for another 15 minutes. Every 15 minutes, reglaze the ham using the pan drippings. I like to use a turkey baster to really moisten the ham and get into all the cracks. The total time to cook this 1.7kg/3.7lb ham is 50 minutes. The cooking time is about 15 minutes per every 500g or 1.1lb of ham. Always replace the foil tightly on top of the ham and make sure to drench the ham with the drippings and don't let the ham dry out - once it hits 57C/135F it's done.
Step 6 GLAZE - Brush reserved glaze on in the final 15 minutes and once cooked, rest ham for 10 minutes. Place 1 cup of the pan drippings to simmer in a saucepan for 5-8 minutes and reduce to make glossy glaze to brush on top of ham. Serve the rest of the drippings as a gravy on the side.
Personal Note
While baking this ham my best friend was little Teddy Elliott. Our tiny boy has a very discerning way with food. He oftens hopes for an upgrade with his food and will turn his nose up at his dog food in the hopes of getting something more delicious. Like his ham. Can you see him waiting patiently for a piece of ham?
Little Teddy has had quite a hard couple of weeks. First there was the anal gland procedure at the groomers and then one night, while I was out, Mr NQN heard Teddy fall down the stairs! At least that's what we think happened as he didn't see it happen but he heard Teddy cry out and from then on Teddy refused to go down the stairs. Going up the stairs was no issue but coming down was a huge problem.
We would pick Teddy up and take him downstairs but one night I was upstairs with Teddy and Mr NQN came home. Teddy was desperate to see his daddy but he couldn't bring himself to go down the stairs. He started trembling, crying and howling in utter misery. His cries were a vice clenching around my heart and I knew that we had to get him used to the stairs again.
We bought some carpet stair treads to give him a bit more grip when using the stairs. They arrived just a couple of nights ago and we installed them straight away. Mr NQN has been patiently training him to go down the stairs - literally one step at a time. There is one long flight of stairs and one smaller flight and so far we are on three steps on the smaller flight. And we've been using his favourite foods like like ham and pizza crusts!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you have any tips on helping Teddy go down the stairs? And have you ever tried a spiral ham?
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