Cranberry-Glazed Spiral Ham Recipe

Cranberry Glazed Ham is a little sweet, a little tart, and a whole lot of yummy! A spiced cranberry and orange sauce gives this spiral ham recipe a tangy, caramelized taste that is perfect for your next holiday feast!

Cranberry Glazed Ham is an easy recipe that is perfect for Christmas, Easter, or any time! If you love cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, you will love the taste of this ham.

The recipe combines all of the flavors of my brown sugar cranberry sauce with allspice and clove to make a spiral ham glaze that is totally mouthwatering!

CRANBERRY-GLAZED SPIRAL HAM RECIPE
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Ingredients Needed for Cranberry-Glazed Spiral Ham

This succulent cranberry ham glaze requires only 7 simple ingredients:

• A spiral sliced ham
• A can of jellied cranberry sauce
• Brown sugar
• Orange juice
• Ground cloves
• Ground cinnamon
• Ground allspice

You should be able to get around 8-10 servings from a 5-6 pound ham. Simply double the recipe if you need to feed more people!

How to Make a Glaze for Ham

This homemade ham glaze recipe is super simple! It only takes four steps to make the best ham glaze:

1. Add all of your glaze ingredients to a saucepan and stir to combine.
2. Heat the mixture slowly over medium heat.
3. As the glaze begins to bubble and thicken, whisk until smooth.
4. Remove from the heat and use the glaze as directed by the recipe.

How to Glaze a Ham

Glazing a ham is as easy as can be and gives a spiral cut ham SO much flavor. Go ahead and discard the glaze packet that comes with your ham. My homemade glaze blow that stuff out of the water!

1. First, cook your ham according to the directions on its packaging in a preheated oven. A good rule of thumb for baking a ham is to bake for 18-20 minutes per pound.
2. While your spiral ham is baking, make the glaze.
3. In the last 30 minutes of cooking, remove the ham from the oven and use a pastry brush or basting brush to spread half of the glaze liberally over the ham. You can also use a spoon or ladle if you prefer.
4. Be sure to get the brush into all of the nooks and crannies of the ham’s cuts. This step will make the ham super flavorful, ensuring that the glaze permeates into the ham and adds flavor to every single slice.
5. Return your glazed spiral cut ham to the oven for the final 30 minutes. When it’s finished cooking, remove the ham from the oven and spread the remaining glaze over the ham or serve it on the side with a spoon.

Should you score a ham before baking?

Ham glaze is best used on scored hams since the cuts in the meat allow the glaze to permeate into the nooks and crannies of the ham. This is important because if your ham is smooth on the outside, the glaze will slide down the sides of the ham and won’t create the sweet caramelized crust that makes a glazed ham so delicious.

I recommend purchasing a pre-cut spiral ham to save yourself the time and effort of scoring. A spiral-cut ham is great for glazing because you can get the glaze down into the slices for ultimate flavor.

If you can’t find a spiral ham, you can score your own by making a crisscross pattern in the outside of the top side of the ham.

Is bone-in ham better than boneless?

There are benefits to both types of ham!

A bone-in ham will come out juicier and more flavorful. The bone helps the meat to retain moisture and will assist with redistributing the juices upon resting after your ham is cooked.

A boneless ham is much easier to cut than a bone-in ham.

If you’re worried about your boneless ham drying out, you can keep it moist by basting it regularly with pan juices. Before you add the glaze to the ham, you can also tent it with foil during the initial baking process to retain moisture.

Other Ham Recipes to Try!

• Riesling Peach Glazed Ham
• Pineapple Glazed Ham
• Honey Glazed Crock Pot Ham
• 3-Ingredient Apricot Glazed Ham
• Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Glaze
• More MAIN DISH recipes…

These are my favorite ways to use leftover ham!

• Breakfast Ham Casserole
• Slow Cooker Ham & Potato Cheese Soup
• Ham & Egg Taquitos
• Cheesy Ham and Hash Brown Casserole
• Leftover Ham and Lentil Soup

Tools used to make this Cranberry-Glazed Spiral Ham recipe

Roasting Pan: This roasting pan is a great tool for feeding a crowd. I like that this roasting pan holds large cuts of meat securely, so I can rest easy knowing that I won’t open my oven to a mess.

Basting Brush: This silicone basting brush is easy to clean and super versatile. Use it to glaze roasted meats or apply egg washes to pie crusts with ease.

*This post originally posted on 12/06/2012.