We Found Your Perfect Christmas Ham Recipe

Christmas ham is a classic Christmas dinner, and a great option if you’re still all turkey-ed out from Thanksgiving. It’s traditional and delicious, and the sort of dish that one only sees on special occasions. And a Christmas ham looks so good on the table it’s practically a holiday centerpiece in itself.

The only real drawback having ham for Christmas dinner is that ham can be difficult to slice and serve at the table, but you can avoid all that difficulty by opting for a spiral-cut ham. Spiral ham is a bone-in ham that’s been cut in a spiral around the bone, which makes it much easier to cut and serve at big gatherings. Traditional bone-in hams are delicious, but can be very difficult to serve, and it’s virtually impossible to carve one elegantly without practice.

Spiral hams take the trouble out of serving them, and they are a popular choice for holidays because when you have 10 hungry people waiting for food, serving speed is of the essence. Spiral hams have a much greater tendency to dry out than bone-in hams, but that’s one of the reasons to cook it in a sweet glaze, like this one. It gives a fantastic savory-sweet flavor and helps keep the meat moist and tender. 

To start, score the ham all over with a knife. This part is always fun. Just stab the top of the ham all over. Ideally, your knife cuts should be about half an inch deep and arranged about one inch from each other in all directions, but it won’t hurt if the marks are not entirely exact. Then bake it, covered, for about an hour. 

While the ham bakes, make the cola and brown sugar glaze. Just pour Coca-Cola or Dr Pepper into a saucepan with dark brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, grainy mustard, ginger, onion powder, some crushed red pepper flakes, and a bit of salt. Bring all the ingredients to a boil on the stove, then reduce it to a simmer for about 20 minutes. Once it looks dark and syrupy, take it off the heat and set it aside until the pork is ready.

Brush half the glaze onto the ham and between the slices. Pour crushed pineapple over the top of the ham, then drizzle more of the glaze over the top of the pineapple. Return the ham to the oven, and brush more of the glaze over the top about every 10 minutes as it cooks. That will help produce a nice brown glossy texture on top and keep the meat from drying out. Remove the ham when it reaches 140 degrees on a meat thermometer, which could take about an hour. It should come out glossy, delicious, and very easy to cut, which is a good thing, because your guests are not going to want to have to wait to eat this. 

Get the Recipe: Brown Sugar Pineapple Spiral Ham from The Cookie Rookie

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