Ham glazes can be sweet or savory and often use sugar sources like honey, maple syrup, or brown sugar. Mustard, cloves, and other spices can also be added. Cola glaze is a modern option, and some glazes use acids like pineapple or lemon juice. Some hams come with their own glaze, but making your own can be fresher and tastier.
Ham glazes tend to focus on sweet or savory to compensate for the salty and sweet taste of the ham. You’ll find numerous ham glaze recipes, many on the internet and even more in cookbooks. If you’re used to the same glaze every time you make ham, it can be fun to try other ham glazes to change up the taste of your final product.
Many ham glazes rely on a sugar source, often mixed with sweet spices. For ham glazes, consider honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, applesauce, orange juice, or a variety combined. Cloves are some of the standard choices for peppering a ham or flavoring glazes. Other sweet spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger can flavor a frosting and give it extra flavor and interest.
Perhaps one of the more unusual glazes is cola glaze. This combines cola, ground or prepared mustard, cloves, and brown sugar. Many love this modern glaze for ham. You can add it to cooked ham covered in pineapple or cherries for extra flavor. You could try cherry cola instead. While cherry is not a common meat flavoring in the United States, cherries are very common as a meat flavoring in German cuisine.
Sugar glazes of many types can add savory spice. In the cola glaze above, the mustard offsets the sugar. Many ham glazes have mustard added, or they may use pepper or even chilli to give more spice to the taste. Sometimes a ham glaze can be combined with an acid such as pineapple, lemon juice, orange juice or even vinegar. Semi-sweet prunes or cranberry juice are also good choices.
Some ham glazes are saltier and are not particularly sweet. People may choose to simply glaze the ham with Dijon mustard or any yellow mustard. You can use any mustard of your choice, and you may want to try some hot and spicy varieties for more flavor. Usually, you 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.
Some hams, especially the spiced spiral ones, come with their own glaze, usually powdered. You can reconstitute it with a little water or orange juice, depending on the instructions. If you’d like something different, skip the commercial frosting and make your own. It will usually taste fresher and better than powdered and reconstituted glazes.
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