Three things are included in the glaze for this whole ham recipe: amazing flavor, stunning appearance, and a crunchy, crackling crust you can hear from across the room. These ingredients are present in large quantities in this simple glaze.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 50 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 1 glazed ham |
Ingredients
- ¾ cup water, or as needed
- 2 whole star anise
- 12 whole cloves, or more to taste
- 1 (7 pound) country-style ham
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
- Prepare ham: Add water, star anise, and cloves to the bottom of a roasting pan. Place a roasting rack into the pan; place ham on the rack. Cut 1/4-inch-deep slashes, 1/2-inch apart, lengthwise and crosswise across the top of ham.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
- While ham is baking, make glaze: Whisk together brown sugar, honey, mustard, vinegar, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and cayenne pepper in a medium bowl until thick and smooth.
- Brush glaze all over ham. Continue baking ham, brushing with glaze every 20 minutes, until glaze is deep golden and ham is heated through, about 2 hours 10 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of ham should read at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).
- Run a kitchen torch over ham until glaze is crispy and caramelized, 2 to 5 minutes.
- You can use any vinegar instead of rice vinegar.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 455 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 19 g |
| Cholesterol | 97 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 34 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 1919 mg |
| Sugars | 18 g |
| Fat | 26 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I’ve never cooked a large ham like this (10 lbs). Easy and the glaze was perfect. Meat was moist, skin/fat was caramelized – looked impressive. Will make more glaze as a mustard sauce for the table.
Yum! My ham was only 2lbs.5oz but as Chef John notes in his video this recipe works for any size. I had to be gone in the afternoon so I scored it and made 1/3 of the glaze (smaller ham) and put in the fridge. I instructed my husband to preheat oven to 350, put foil on ham and put in oven when preheated. It had been in oven 20 minutes when i arrived home. I took it out and started the basting process every 15 munutes and left off foil. It took only not quite an hour and half longer. I turned up heat to 500 the last couple minutes. Only used 6 cloves in water as I couldn’t find star anise. The whole process too less time and energy as this review!
I’ve made this a few times and my family can’t get enough of it! I use spiral cut ham and I do find it can fall apart a bit. My solution is to tie the ham with a few pieces of twine before baking. Other than that no changes to the original recipe.
The recipe is delicious without changing a thing.
This is an excellent recipe. Followed it to the letter, though added a little more in proportions to accommodate a 10.17 lb ham. I glazed the ham every 20 minutes from the first application to the sixth. At that point, I ran out of glaze, so just let it bake the remaining time. Given the size of my ham, I needed just under three hours. The result was perfect. The ham was warmed through thoroughly, the meat was tender and moist, and the glaze was like a light candy. I didn’t have a blow torch to crystallize the glaze, but it still came out lovely. I would recommend this recipe to anyone, and I will definitely cook again.
I like this recipe! Very easy and delicious! I have been using this recipe for years! Even past it on to my kids.
Chef John saved Christmas with this recipe for us Amazing ham
It was so good! My family LOVED it. I will be making this ham again.
This takes any old ham and turns it into a mouth watering, delicious centerpiece to a meal. The glaze gets into all the slices and seeps the flavor inside and then the outside gets crackly and just so amazing. I make it twice a year for Thanksgiving and easter and it’s always the favorite.
Absolutely fantastic. I wish that I had taken a picture before carving into this deliciousness. Thank you for sharing
This recipe came out well. They ham wasn’t dried out and the glaze was perfect.
I made this recipe last year but grilled it over charcoal. Indirect plus apple wood. Best ham we ever ate. Kids couldn’t believe the flavor all the way through. Not just the outer crust thus the scoring prior to cooking. No need for torching. Making this recipe again today.
I wound up swapping out the anise and clove for whole allspice and adding it to the glaze on the stovetop. Instead of water I used a can of beer.
Wow! This made an INCREDIBLE ham, probably the best I’ve ever eaten. We followed the directions, but had to substitute rice vinegar with apple cider vinegar, and dijon mustard with regular mustard, and it still turned out amazing! Thank you so much for this recipe!
Excellent recipe! Definitely my family’s new ham recipe!
Made this for Christmas supper. My son and mom loved it.
Did not have star anise and browned with broil instead of a torch. Other that those two changes, cooked per recipe. It was a HUGE hit with my husband and friends, won’t cook a ham any other way! DELICIOUS!!
I admit I got a little creative. I reached for the honey, and saw the bottle of cane and maple syrup blend I’d bought on impulse a few days before and thought “that sounds good, though.” And it was. No doubt the honey would have been just as delightful. Crunchy sweet/spicy crust, tender juicy meat, and all around delicious. I’ve never had a Chef John recipe fail, and this was no exception.
I didn’t have high expectations since I’m not a huge fan of ham, but holy this thing is good. I made extra sauce as is habit for any recipe, but when this thing was done you could taste the flavor all the way through and it was amazing!
delicious! (watch the video though for full recipe). made this several times now
delicious and easy! Everyone at Easter dinner raved about how great it tasted.