Spiral Ham How-To

We’ve received many calls with the plea: “my spiral ham is all dried out, my guests arrive in a half an hour.”

And, it seems the instructions that come with the many different brands of this popular holiday and party ham vary greatly. “What do I do?”

Is your ham dry?

If the answer is yes, call us for the friendly voice of reassurance from our chef team. Serve with: beer, bourbon, mustard sauce, a warm gravy, or mustard butter.

Mustard Sauce Recipe: Mix 1/2 cup dijon mustard with 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey. Serve alongside ham.

Southern Red Eye Gravy Recipe Click Here

Want a moist and juicy spiral ham?

What follows is a quick guide from our collective experience and last night’s test of the process in Chef Cary’s test kitchen.

1. Heat your oven to 300 degrees. Remove the ham from the plastic and place on a roast rack in a roasting pan. Add 1/2 - 3/4 cup of water to the pan.

2. Cover the entire top of ham loosely with foil and crimp edges of foil around pan.

3. Bake 8-10 minutes for each pound. For or 10 pound ham that’s 1 hr 20 min to 1 hr. 40 minutes.

4. Remove ham and pan from oven. Raise oven temperature to 425 degrees. Prepare glaze according to package instructions (for a flavor twist, substitute orange juice for the water in the glaze recipe). Brush the glaze all over the ham and place back in the oven for 10 minutes. Eat and Enjoy.

Why this ham is almost perfect and how do you achieve this not dry ham?

Remove the ham from the oven when:
1. The center slices of ham are very warm to touch.
2. There is also steam coming off the inside of ham.
3. Look beyond the first slice or two - it looks moist.
4. You see some pieces that will satisfy that guest who always wants the burnt edges. The carmelization here is a good thing and creates a more beautiful presentation.
5. Using a meat thermometer? Good. This ham measured: tight narrow end was 120 and the center read 90 degrees. This ham, pictured here, was/is delicious!

Directions are written? “Tent the ham with foil”
When a recipe calls for tenting a roast, or ham, the goal is NOT to wrap foil around (360 degrees) the piece of meat. Instead, “tenting” describes how to cover a roasting pan.

What’s in this ham?

Ham is the hind leg of a hog. The bone we see is the equivalent of a thigh bone. This ten pound ham is a pretty typical size and shape. This is “private selection” from Kroger Supermarkets and was labeled “spiral sliced half honey ham with glaze.” This ham, like most spiral cut hams, are cured with water, honey, salt, various and typical preservatives. There are 830 mg sodium per 3 ounce serving which is 34% of your daily allowance. Good thing since hams taste so good when served with buttery and tangy dishes. Good news, lots of fat but only 150 calories. Typical glaze packets with a fully cooked, spiral cut ham include sugar, honey, paprika, cinnamon, cloves, and other spices. This earthy lending toward syrupy-tasting. Use orange juice instead of water when mixing to balance the glaze’s sweetness and the ham’s saltiness.

Enjoy!