Baking ham might seem like a daunting process but it's really quite easy. The key is cooking time for a ham. It's not as long as you might think. Anybody can learn how to cook a ham.
If you've never baked one or if you have and wound up with a dried out, tasteless hunk of hog flesh you need to try this baking ham technique.
It will guide you to producing succulent, moist and delicious baked ham that will Wow your guests. (Translation: Make your mother-in-law turn green with envy!)
Selecting Ham For This Baking Ham Technique
Basically ham is just the hind leg of the pig. It's the processing that takes it from pigs hind leg to ham. However, there are so many processing methods that a trip to the grocery can be confusing.
For our purpose we want a ham that not only tastes great but also is easy to serve.
Check the labels in the grocery. They will show the water content. The lower the water content the better tasting the ham will be.
A ham labeled as "ham in natural juices" is best.
Stay away from hams labeled "Ham - water added" because they have 12 to 15 percent water added. Even worse is "Ham and Water Product" which can have as much as 35 percent water added.
Bone in or boneless? Well boneless would certainly be easier to serve but bone in just tastes better. Boneless requires more processing and it seems the more processing the worse it gets!
A whole ham tends to be massive-weighing about 15 pounds. So, for manageability, they are increasingly cut in half and sold in two pieces, the butt and the shank.
Whole hams have a difficult to carve around bone structure. That difficult structure is in the butt half. The shank half has only one bone to navigate. And if it's spiral sliced so much the better.
Whether half or whole, though, the differences in the best supermarket hams come down to what bones, if any, have been removed and how much water, if any, has been added.
So we have a trade off. A bone in, spiral sliced, fully cooked shank half ham in natural juices is my choice.
Baking Ham - How To Cook A Ham - Cooking Time For a Ham
Since hams from the grocery are already fully cooked our objective in baking for our guests is just to get the it up to serving temperature as gently as possible.
This technique for how to cook a ham greatly reduces the cooking time for a ham.
Gently raising the temperature to 115 degrees F. internally keeps the ham from drying out. When it is removed from the oven residual cooking will bring the temperature to between 125 and 130, which is perfect serving temperature.
So we're going to start that process with raising the temperature before it's even placed in the oven!
Leave the inner plastic or foil covering intact and place the ham in large container and cover with hot tap water. Allow it to sit in the water for 45 minutes and then drain. Cover it again with hot tap water and set aside for another 45 minutes.
Preheating it in this fashion means there is less potential for it drying out in the oven.
Another trick in this baking ham technique is to bake it in an oven bag.
The Oven Bag provides a more even cooking method allowing the heat to circulate within the bag shortening the baking time.
Adjust the oven rack to its lowest position and pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees. Unwrap the ham and remove and discard the plastic disk covering the bone.
Place it in the oven bag. Gather the top of bag tightly so the bag fits snugly around the ham. Tie the bag and trim excess plastic. Set the ham cut-side down in large roasting pan and cut 4 slits in top of the oven bag.
Bake until the center registers 100 degrees on and instant-read thermometer. This will take about 10 minutes per pound which is really a quick cooking time for a ham.
Remove it from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Cut open the oven bag and roll back the sides to expose the ham.
Brush it with one-third of the glaze of your choice and return it to the oven until the glaze becomes sticky, about 10 minutes.
Remove it from the oven and transfer it to a cutting board. Brush the entire surface with another third of the glaze.
Let it rest, loosely tented with foil, for 15 minutes.
While it rests heat the remaining third of the glaze with 4 to 6 tablespoons of the juices from the bag until it forms a thick but fluid sauce.
Carve, serve and pass the sauce at table.
Ham Glaze Recipes
This is the best technique I know of for how to cook a ham but what about glazes?
Glazes not only make your holiday ham look gorgeous but they also add additional flavor.
Glazes are usually sweet and are anything from just a brushing the baking ham with maple syrup to more complex mixtures made from sugars and seasonings.
A glaze should only be added toward the end of cooking time for a ham so they don't burn.
This baking ham technique will work with any glaze recipe that you and your family like. Give the technique a try the next time you are thinking of baking ham.
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