Baked Ham with Honey Mustard Glaze
This ham is perfectly juicy on the inside with a salty-sweet, crispy skin that everyone will love!
Servings: 9 people
Ingredients
- 1 8lb precooked ham
- 4 large carrots, optional *see notes
- ¼ cup (approx.) whole cloves
- ¾ cup liquid honey
- ⅓ cup dijon mustard
Instructions
- First prepare your pan. You will need either a roasting pan with a rack on the bottom, or some carrots that you can place in the pan to help raise the ham off the bottom of the pan (see notes below). Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Place the ham in the pan on the rack or the row of carrots. Carefully pour cold water into the pan until it covers the bottom of the pan but doesn't touch the ham. Cover the pan tightly with tin foil. This will help the ham steam as it bakes, keeping it moist.
- Cook ham until it reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees - approximately 30 minutes per pound - (for a ham that says 'fully cooked') or 160 degrees (for a ham that says 'cook before eating').
- While ham is baking, mix together honey and mustard in a bowl to create a glaze.
- Remove ham from oven and remove tin foil. Using a sharp knife, slice a grid pattern across the entire ham, cutting lines about 1.5 inches apart from each other, to form a grid. Be sure to slice right through the fatty skin just to the meat below.
- Stud the center of each square with one whole clove. Reserving ⅓ cup of the glaze for later, spoon honey mustard glaze generously over the top and sides of the ham, making sure the entire ham is coated in glaze.
- Return ham to the oven, uncovered, for approximately 30 minutes, until the skin has crisped and is a dark golden brown, basting with the pan juices every 10 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of baking, brush remaining glaze onto ham.
- Remove from oven and allow to rest 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
*If you don't have a rack for your roasting pan, simply halve a few large carrots lengthwise and lay them in the pan. Rest the ham on these to keep it out of the water and from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
*If your ham is getting too dark in spots during the last half hour of baking, cover those areas with some tin foil.
*Likewise, if the ham skin isn't crisping up fast enough, you can broil it for the last few minutes. However, you must keep a close eye on it, as it will burn quickly! Keep the oven door open a crack and watch it until it is perfectly golden and crispy.