You may have missed it, but it is Christmas – I know it crept up on me. It is tradition in our family to have a glazed ham at some point whether on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. This year as we were going the Griswold Birks Family Christmas at Buderium on the big day, we were intending to have a Christmas Eve shin dig however, life intervened, and it ended up being a get together with a very small group of friends rather than a family affair. The glazed ham got some rave reviews so I thought I would share my glaze recipe with you. Enjoy! R x

EASY GLAZE FOR YOUR HOLIDAY HAM

INGREDIENTS
4kg Leg or Shoulder Ham
NB: I tend to buy the smallest but tastiest looking one as I have a tiny oven

1 tin of sliced pineapple (or you can use fresh – go nuts)
1 packet of glace cherries
Whole cloves to stud the beast
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon of seed honey mustard
1/4 cup of mandarin (or orange) juice
AND toothpicks

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Put the ham on a rack, in a roasting pan, and then put some water in the pan – you don’t want to water to touch the ham. (The water helps keep the ham moist, and also makes cleaning up way, way easier). Bake for 1 hour.
3. Take the ham out of the oven, and remove the skin carefully – don’t take the fat off; just the skin. I use a knife and tongs for this process.
4. Next, score the surface to make a diamondish/grid/lattice pattern.
5. Cut cherries in half, and skewer a cherry piece and a pineapple piece on a toothpick, and jam it into the ham – preferably in the grid but if you aren’t a ‘colour inside the lines’ person, do what you feel.
6. Mix the juice, sugar, honey and mustard to form the glaze, and using a basting/pastry brush, paint it all over the the ham and pineapple/cherry bits and the bare faces of the ham.
7. Put the ham back into the oven for about 20-30 mins basting about every 10-mins or so.
8. Take it out when it looks awesome, and present to your awe-struck family.