Cranberry Glazed Ham

Our Christmas dinner this year was basically this ham and mashed potatoes. The method is straight up lifted from this recipe from Saveur #18, Monte's Ham. I have tried it using marmalade and succeeded very well with raspberry jam. This year my wife, Yvonne, suggested I start with cranberry sauce made with orange juice in place of the jam. This was easily the best Christmas ham ever.

1 smoked ham (the cheapest one on sale works great for this application)
1 1/2 - 2 cups cranberry sauce
1 cup Dijon mustard
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
whole cloves

Here it is using the magic of color photographs.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Place ham meat side down in roasting pan and score with a sharp knife. Roast for 2 hours.

Meanwhile add cranberry sauce, mustard and sugar in a bowl and stir until combined.

Remove ham from oven and increase oven temp. to 350 degrees F. Stud ham with cloves. I used to try to stick them into the center of each diamond created by the scoring but it is much easier and quicker to insert them at the intersections of the diamonds. Brush with glaze and return to oven.

Cook ham for an additional 1 1/2 hours brushing with glaze at least 3 times.

Let rest 30 minutes before carving. Great served hot or at room temperature.

In a word, yum.

Thanks Monte!

Shrimp13