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Brown Sugar Mustard Glazed Ham is the perfect tasty centrepiece for your Christmas dinner table! We guarantee you will fall in love with this glaze.
Alongside our Churro Nutella Christmas Tree and our Garlic Herb Butter Roast Turkey, this Brown Sugar Mustard Glazed Ham recipe is one of our absolute favourite Christmas dishes.
Table of Contents
BAKED HAM
More often than not, trying to bake a ham at home for Christmas results in a dry, bland tasting ham creating more stress than it’s worth. Well, I’m here to prove that you don’t have to be intimidated by baked ham!
We like to think that we have perfected the art of Christmas ham after banging out our classic Maple Glazed Ham and Honey Baked Ham to raving reviews. That’s we decided to concoct a fool-proof baked ham recipe which is guaranteed to provide you with delicious, juicy results.
Follow this recipe and you will have the perfect salty, sweet ham with charred, crispy edges and a mouth-watering glaze to serve your friends and family for Christmas.
HOW TO MAKE GLAZE FOR HAM
The best glaze for a baked ham will usually contain either honey, brown sugar or maple syrup. The saltiness of the ham and the sweetness of the glaze complement each other perfectly. All three of these ingredients give-off a dark, syrupy consistency which works perfectly as a glaze.
For this glaze, I went for a combination of butter, brown sugar, honey, crushed garlic cloves and dijon mustard, giving the glaze a tangy kick.
From here, you’re free to improvise if you’d like to continue adding flavours. You can add spices like traditional ground cinnamon or ground cloves. If that’s not your thing, leave them out.
Most recipes call for decorating the ham with whole cloves between each cut. Personally, I didn’t appreciate chewing on hidden cloves every few bites; however, you can add them if you wish. I believe this brown sugar mustard glazed ham has enough flavour without the addition of cloves, but each to their own!
HOW TO COOK GLAZED HAM
Believe it or not, the perfect ham only requires three steps:
- Remove rind –- so easy, you can peel it off!
- Baste ham with a super easy Brown Sugar Mustard Glaze
- Bake, basting every 15 minutes!
WHAT IS THE BEST CUT OF HAM TO BAKE?
For the tastiest results, aim for a fully cooked bone-in ham. When cooking our brown sugar mustard glazed ham, we went for a ‘half leg’. To be more specific, we used the shank end of the leg.
The other type of ‘half leg’ which is the butt end (shaped like a dome), contains part of the hip bone and is harder to carve. It has less meat, although it’s very tender and packs a lot of flavour.
If you want value for your money, go for the type I have pictured here.
HAM RIND ON OR OFF?
For some reason, this is the most controversial step — taking the rind off. In testing with the rind still on, I found the rind became chewy and gummy as the ham cooled and tough to eat.
Also, the glaze flavours stopped at the rind with no flavours seeping into the fleshy part of the ham.
For this reason, I suggest trimming the rind off. Fully cooked ham rind does not crisp. We tried broiling, baking at high heat and deep frying.
HOW TO REMOVE HAM RIND
When you buy your ham, you’ll notice right underneath the rind there is a gorgeous layer of fat. DON’T trim this away. This fat melds with your glaze and turns into a beautiful crispy, sticky coating and is DIVINE.
Removing ham rind:
- Cut a line through the skin around the shank end.
- Insert a sharp knife between the rind and fat and run it along to detach both layers.
- Using your fingers, gently separate the rind from the fat. You can insert your hand deeper into the ham to keep detaching it so it’s easier to peel the rind off.
- Peel off and discard the rind.
- Run knife, cutting into the fat layer about 1/4-inch deep to lightly score diamond pattern all over the surface.
For a full video demonstration, head to the bottom of the blog.
Once your ham is in the oven, it’s time to get started on your glaze.
TIPS FOR THE BEST GLAZED HAM
My biggest piece of advice is not to simmer the glaze for too long, as you will end up with a hard caramel once it begins to cool. It also becomes extremely difficult to slather onto the outside of the ham when glazing. You want to bring it to a gentle simmer and take it off the heat quickly.
I added the pan juices from the ham into the glaze once there were pan juices to use, and WOW! My ham wasn’t salty though, so make sure you do some taste testing before adding the juices and add however much you need to achieve your preferred flavour.
HOW TO BASTE A HAM
Glaze, baste, baste some more and glaze. GO NUTS with it. The more the merrier, and ’tis the season, right?
I wish smell-ernet was a thing because this brown sugar mustard glazed ham smells unbelievable!
My favourite part is slicing through my glazed ham like butter and watching the juices burst out with each slice. THERE’S NO DRY HAM HERE!
Happy Holidays everyone!
WHAT TO SERVE WITH GLAZED HAM
Whether you’re making this for yourself or bringing it to a holiday gathering, these side dishes will complete your lunch or dinner:
Garlic Parmesan Scalloped Potatoes
Honey Dijon Apple Bacon Cranberry Salad
Easy Soft Dinner Rolls
Brown Sugar Mustard Glazed Ham Recipe Video
Try our Honey Baked Ham or our Maple Glazed Ham!
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Brown Sugar Mustard Glazed Ham
Ingredients
- 8-10 pound bone-in cooked ham
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter reduce fat or full fat
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 4 cloves garlic smashed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F | 150°C and arrange a rack in the lower third. Remove any plastic packaging or netting from the ham. Trim away the rind and discard. Set the ham aside to rest at room temperature for 1-2 hours.
- Line a baking tray or dish with several sheets of aluminium foil or parchment paper if you prefer (it will make cleanup a lot easier).
- Remove the rind or skin of the ham (refer to steps in post), ensuring you leave the fat on. Using a sharp knife score a 1-inch-wide diamond pattern (don’t cut more than 1/4 inch deep) over the entire ham. Place the ham in the baking tray; pour 1/3 cup of water into the base of the pan and cover the ham with two pieces of foil or parchment paper and bake for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the butter in a small pot or saucepan over medium heat until golden browned. Add in the brown sugar, honey, mustard, cinnamon and cloves, stirring to mix together well until the brown sugar has completely dissolved, (about 2 minutes).
- Reduce heat to low and add in the garlic. Allow it to become fragrant, cooking for a further minute or two until the glaze just begins to simmer, then set it aside and let cool to lukewarm (the glaze should be the consistency of room-temperature honey).
- After 30 minutes baking time, carefully remove the ham from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 425°F | 220°C. Discard the foil or parchment paper and pour 1/3 of the glaze all over the ham, brushing in between the cuts to evenly cover. Return to the oven and bake uncovered for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, brush with another third of the glaze and some of the pan juices, and repeat again after 15 minutes more minutes of baking until a dark golden-brown crust has formed, (about 30 minutes total). For added depth of flavour, mix some of the ham pan juices together with the glaze in the pot which will help keep it runny enough for brushing. If your crust is still pink after there suggested baking time, turn on your broiler (or oven grill), and allow it to broil for 2-5 minutes, while keeping an eye on it so it doesn’t burn from the sugar.
- Let the ham rest 10-20 minutes before slicing.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have to comment, this is my second year making this ham and I almost couldn’t find the recipe!!! I scoured the internet for about an hour until I found it again.
I. Love. This. Recipe!!!!
I was looking forward to this all year long. It truly truly is delicious. And I appreciate the detailed instructions and ham prep advice and pictures you have. 5 stars all around!
I rarely write a review. But this recipe produced the BEST ham we ever had. Followed all except I cooked the ham a little longer before glazing. The Glaze was perfect and end result was decadent and juicy. Hats off. This is my go to recipe for this ham. OUTSTANDING!!!
Even though I’ve been cooking for decades and am one of the best cooks I know, I’m always on the hunt for new recipes for any occasion. Our tradition is There Is No Tradition. That said, this ham technique and glaze was a smash hit for Easter. The grandkids loved it and Grandpa didn’t even notice the rind was gone. I made 2 hams, one to bring and one for home, and I’m so glad I did. Thank you for a great addition to the Recipe Box.
This was absulutely delicious but I was wondering if the brown sugar should be packed? I used the cup but thought it could use a bit more.
Amazing Glaze, how sweet the taste. I rarely follow recipes precisely. I cut yours in half and added some spicy brown mustard in place of some of the dijohn.. Didn’t use the garlic. (We were having garlic bread.) The texture was lovely. It was easy to work with and there was some left over, so folks added some to the ham. This was spectacular. Thanx for the great recipe.
I never liked ham, but now I love it. I always found ham too salty. Now I see what all the fuss was about. My family agreed. Beautiful flavour. I’d give more stars if I could. I followed the recipe except I added double the cinnamon and cloves. Thank you to the chef.
This glaze recipe was life changing..oh my word, so delicious!
Yes, the best glazed ham we’ve had to date. Only thing i’d add is to get the internal temp right. From what i’ve read in other recipes, 55C is the go. In order to get this 4.5kg ham to that tempI had to reduce the cooking heat down to 190 -200 C max. I reduced it as it takes a longer cook time to reach that internal temp. Otherwise you will burn the edges of the ham if kept at the original temp.
This the go-to recipe for us now.
I made ham for the first time on Christmas. Family had doubts but I followed the direction and everyone loved it. It got raves and so did I. Even days later eating leftovers the family still talks about how good it is. Thanks so much.
I had a 5 1/2 lb butt ham. I forgot the mustard completely, but it came out amazing!!!!! Nothing burned and it made a really nice gravy for mashed potatoes, etc. The ham was very moist. My ham had no rind to trim off and I scored it and studded it with whole cloves and skipped the ground cloves in glaze. I did use the cinnamon. Thank you for the recipe!! Love the glaze! Will try it with mustard next time haha.