Who doesn’t love a holiday? All the family. All the friends. And the food is good too. This one won’t win any awards for creativity or originality, but it totally scores where it counts. It tastes great, feeds a crowd, and is pretty easy to pull off. And besides, other than my picky nieces, who doesn’t love a good ham?
Cooking on a Budget
I came up with this one year when money was tight but I still had to feed 10 or 12 people, and a ham at the holidays can be a steal. As I write this in 2018, I’m planning on making this dish for Easter dinner, and I was able to score a spiral-slice ham for 95 cents per pound. Makes it a pretty sweet deal. Add another 3 bucks in glaze ingredients, and it’s a downright bargain.
If Your Ham is Too Salty
Some less expensive ham options can be more salty than others. If this is true for yours, you can always soak the ham first for an hour or two.. Pat it dry and proceed with the recipe.
The Glaze Is the Thing
Of course, this recipe is all about the glaze. And when you get down to it, isn’t ANY ham recipe all about the glaze? Make sure you use fresh-squeezed orange juice. I’ve tried it with the ready-to-drink stuff out of the refrigerator case, and you can tell. I’ve also tried using orange marmalade. Again, it’s just not the fresh taste you get out of squeezing the oranges yourself.
The only other piece of advice I can give is to make sure you don’t overcook the glaze. It can go from ‘done’ to ‘burnt’ fairly quickly, especially if your oven is too hot.
So ham it up for your next holiday meal. You’ll be glad you did.
Orange Dijon Glazed Ham
Ingredients
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1 C fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 C brown sugar, packed
- 1 t ground cloves
- ¼ t ground black pepper
- 2 t chopped fresh thyme
- ¼ C Dijon mustard
- 10 lb smoked ham
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add orange zest, orange juice, brown sugar, ground cloves, black pepper, fresh thyme, and Dijon mustard.
- Stir to combine.
- Cook over medium heat until mixture is reduced by half, stirring occasionally.
- Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- Rinse ham thoroughly and pat dry.
- Slice through ham skin & fat cap ¾”, creating a diamond pattern.
- Place ham on a wire rack, cut side down.
- Set wire rack in roasting pan and roast on lower rack of oven for about 2 hours (figure about 10 minutes per pound of ham).
- Remove roasting rack from oven.
- Liberally brush ham with orange Dijon glaze mixture.
- Return roasting pan with glazed ham to oven.
- Roast an additional 20-30 minutes.
- Remove from oven.
- Let rest for 30 minutes before carving.