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What are Some Different Glazes for Ham?

Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen

Glazes for ham tend to focus on either the sweet or the savory in order to offset the salty and sweet taste of ham. You’ll find numerous recipes for glazes for ham, many on the Internet and still more in cookbooks. If you’re used to the same glaze each time you prepare ham, it can be fun to try other glazes for ham to change the taste of your final product.

Many glazes for ham rely on a sugar source, frequently mixed with sweet spices. For ham glazes consider honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, applesauce, orange juice or a combined variety. Cloves are some of the standard choices for studding a ham or spicing up glazes. Other sweet spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger can flavor up a glaze and give it extra taste and interest.

A ham sandwich.
A ham sandwich.

Perhaps one of the most unusual glazes is the cola glaze. This combines cola, either ground or prepared mustard, cloves and brown sugar. Many love this modern glaze for ham. You can add to it by baking the ham covered with pineapples or cherries for extra flavor. You could instead try cherry cola. Though cherry is not a common flavoring of meat in the US, cherries are very common as meat flavoring in German cooking.

Applesauce.
Applesauce.

Sugar glazes of many types can have savory spices added. In the above cola glaze, mustard offsets the sugar. Many glazes for ham have mustard added, or may use pepper, or even chili to give the taste more kick. Sometimes a ham glaze may be combined with an acid like pineapple, lemon juice, orange juice or even vinegar. Semi-sweet plums or cranberry juice are good choices too.

Honey is a popular ham glaze.
Honey is a popular ham glaze.

Some glazes for ham are more savory and aren’t particularly sweet. People may choose to merely glaze the ham with Dijon mustard, or any yellow mustard. You can use any mustard of your choosing, and you might try some hot and spicy varieties for more taste. Usually, you do need at least a small amount of sugar to get the “glazed” look. If you don’t like table sugar, maple syrup or honey, consider an apple or pineapple juice and mustard glaze.

Cloves are used in a number of ham glazes.
Cloves are used in a number of ham glazes.

Some hams, especially those that are spiral spiced come with their own glaze, usually in powdered from. You may reconstitute this with a bit of water or orange juice, depending on the instructions. If you’d like something different, skip the commercial glaze and make your own. It will usually taste fresher, and better than powdered and reconstituted glazes.

Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen

Tricia has a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and has been a frequent WiseGEEK contributor for many years. She is especially passionate about reading and writing, although her other interests include medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently working on her first novel.

Learn more...
Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen

Tricia has a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and has been a frequent WiseGEEK contributor for many years. She is especially passionate about reading and writing, although her other interests include medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently working on her first novel.

Learn more...

Discussion Comments

Viranty

The cola glaze used for ham reminds me of a coca cola flavored barbecue sauce I once tried. However, I still prefer the ham glaze. The barbecue sauce had an interesting flavor, but it was too tangy for me, especially the aftertaste.

Chmander

Not only does the article do a great job at explaining the different glazes that can be used for ham, but it's even given me second thoughts about next year. To be perfectly honest, I don't normally eat ham, not even during Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's usually turkey as the main dish. However, next year, I think it's time for a different approach. All of these glazes are making my mouth water, and generally speaking, it would be a nice break from the "traditional" turkey.

Planch

Another fun ham glaze recipe for when you're looking for a slightly tangier glaze is a chili glaze. This works well with slow cooker ham too, or just as a ham sauce.

It's super-easy. Just take 1/2 cup of thick chili sauce, and combine it with 1/4 cup of corn syrup. I usually sprinkle mine with a little paprika or chili flakes afterwards, but that's totally optional. Really tasty though, and a good way to break away from the traditional honey glaze for ham.

closerfan12

@tunaline -- Have you ever tried a maple syrup glaze? That's one of my favorites, and it's pretty easy to do, too. All you do is mix a tablespoon of mustard into 2/3 of a cup of maple syrup. It has to be real maple syrup, but that's the only hard part.

Or you could make a brown sugar glaze for ham. All you do there is to take 2/3 cups of brown sugar, 3 tablespoons of honey, and 1 tablespoon of mustard and combine it all together.

If you want to get really fancy, then you can make a mustard and red currant glaze. For that, you mix 1/3 of a cup of mustard with 2 tablespoons of oil, two tablespoons of soy sauce, and 1 cup of red currant jelly.

Put it all in a pan on low heat, and then add in four crushed cloves of garlic. Stir it around until it becomes "glaze" consistency, and then brush it over your ham like normal.

Good luck sweetie, hope this helps!

TunaLine

Can somebody give me a good, traditional but easy glaze for ham recipe? I'm supposed to make the Christmas ham for my small group, and I have no idea how to do it! I've only ever made crock pot ham before, so I am very much in need of some help.

Please send me all your easy glazes for baked ham -- my small group will thank you!

osmosis

Cola glaze is really good - and fun to make, especially with children who can get really excited about putting Coke on meat.

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    • A ham sandwich.
      A ham sandwich.
    • Applesauce.
      By: rimglow
      Applesauce.
    • Honey is a popular ham glaze.
      By: Jaimie Duplass
      Honey is a popular ham glaze.
    • Cloves are used in a number of ham glazes.
      By: bergamont
      Cloves are used in a number of ham glazes.
    • Orange juice may be used to make ham glaze.
      By: ExQuisine
      Orange juice may be used to make ham glaze.
    • Ham has a salty and sweet taste, so most glazes focus on sweet or savory.
      By: David Smith
      Ham has a salty and sweet taste, so most glazes focus on sweet or savory.
    • Cola is used in a modern glaze for ham.
      By: RTimages
      Cola is used in a modern glaze for ham.
    • Pineapple is a popular ingredient in ham glaze.
      By: Malyshchyts Viktar
      Pineapple is a popular ingredient in ham glaze.
    • Maple syrup adds a nutty sweetness to ham glaze.
      By: karandaev
      Maple syrup adds a nutty sweetness to ham glaze.
    • A tangy soy mustard sauce can be used to glaze baked ham.
      By: Sea Wave
      A tangy soy mustard sauce can be used to glaze baked ham.