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Impress your guests with this cranberry glazed ham. It has a simple cranberry sauce with a tart, yet sweet, warm flavor with the addition of allspice, cinnamon and a touch of pepper. Want to learn all about baking ham? Here are our tips.

We’re gearing up for the holidays here and of course ham is one of the recipes on our holiday menu! We love serving this cranberry glazed ham (or this honey baked ham) with Christmas green beans and buttery soft rolls.

Cranberry Glazed Ham Recipe

If you thought making a ham dinner was hard, I’m here to prove you wrong today. Glazed hams are often one of the most easiest, most elegant dinners to make. It takes a little bit of time in the oven, but you’ll end up with a flavorful baked ham that is juicy and tender.

Spiral Sliced Ham

My favorite type of ham is spiral sliced. They are super easy because it comes perfectly sliced in sizes ideal for sandwiches or serving. It also makes a beautiful centerpiece on your dinner table. Spiral sliced hams often come with a seasoning packet. I normally throw that seasoning packet away and make my own glaze, which we’ll talk about next!

If you’d like you could get a boneless ham or a bone-in unsliced ham, but spiral sliced are the easiest.

Orange Cranberry Glaze for Ham

Sweet glazes go so perfectly with salty ham. This easy glaze recipe uses tart whole cranberry sauce which is sweetened up a bit with orange juice concentrate and brown sugar. You’ll cook this in a saucepan along with allspice and cinnamon. The special ingredient in this sauce is a little bit of cayenne pepper (or red pepper flakes). Just a touch will do, but it really warms up the sweet and tangy sauce. Try it. I think you’ll like it!

Just warm this sauce on the stove until the sugar seems dissolved into the cranberry sauce. Then it is ready to baste on the ham.

HOW TO BAKE HAM

Baking a ham is easier than you may think. I simply place the ham in a roasting pan (or 9×13 pan) and spread about ½ cup of glaze over the ham.

Cover either the ham itself or the pan with foil. Make sure it is covered well so the ham doesn’t dry out.

Set the oven to 350 degrees and bake the ham for about an hour. Uncover the ham and baste it again, then bake it for another 30 minutes. Continue doing this until the ham is done.

So how do you know if a ham is done?

HOW LONG TO BAKE HAM

It will normally take about 10-15 minutes per pound to heat the spiral sliced ham to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. We set our oven to 350 degrees and plan for it to take about 1 ½ to 2 hours for the nearly 10 pound hams we buy.

You may also love our slow cooker ham!

What to serve with ham?

Reserve about ¾ of a cup of cranberry sauce for basting them ham. It makes a great cranberry side dish! We like serving this ham with mashed potatoes, corn pudding or scalloped corn, homemade bread and a side salad. It also goes really well with cranberry punch and a jello salad.

Leftover Ham Recipes

Cranberry Glazed Ham

4.73 from 11 votes

Impress your guests with this cranberry glazed ham. It has a simple cranberry sauce with a tart, yet sweet, warm flavor with the addition of allspice, cinnamon and a touch of pepper.

Servings 30

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 2 30

Total Time 2 40

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Ingredients

US Customary - Metric

14 ounces whole cranberry sauce (1 can)
⅔ cup brown sugar
¼ cup orange juice concentrate
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper or a dash of red pepper flakes (optional)
10 pound fully cooked spiral sliced ham (weight is approximate)

Instructions

Place the cranberry sauce, sugar, orange juice, and spices in a small saucepan.
Cook and stir over low heat on stove until the sugar is dissolved.
Preheat oven to 350º Fahrenheit.
Place a pre-cooked, spiral sliced ham in a baking pan or casserole dish.
Spoon about ½ cup cranberry glaze over the ham.
Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour.
Glaze the ham with another ½ cup of sauce.
Cover and cook for 30 minutes.
Glaze again and continue baking them ham until the internal temperature of the ham reaches 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This will take about 10-15 minutes per pound of fully cooked ham. Plan for about 90-120 minutes of cooking for a ham.
Serve any leftover cranberry glaze overtop ham slices.

Notes

The calories shown are based on the ham serving 30 people and using all the sauce. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information.**

Nutrition

Author Julie Clark

Course Main Dish

Cuisine American

Calories 409

Keyword baked ham, christmas ham, cranberry glaze, how to bake ham

4.73 from 11 votes (10 ratings without comment)

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Patty

2 years ago

I made my cranberry sauce in my crockpot with fresh cranberries. I always have leftovers that I usually freeze & use on a pork tender loin. But I’m thinking about using it on my New Year’s Day ham. Would I need to do anything different than what your recipe says?

Judi

3 years ago

Instead of covering ham with foil, could the ham be cooked in a roasting bag?

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Richard