Dutch Oven Spiral Ham with Homemade Ham Glaze

Knowing how to cook a spiral ham with homemade maple brown sugar glaze in the dutch oven is essential to any cast iron cook’s repertoire. A show-stopper as a holiday dinner, and easy enough to make for Sunday supers. This dish will have you in hog heaven!

What is a spiral ham

A true spiral ham is pork butt. Though often called the shoulder, it really is the rump and has a bone in it. This bone helps to hold the meat intact as it cooks, and lends itself well to flavoring spiral ham leftovers like Split Pea Soup.

How to cook a spiral ham

A spiral ham can be cooked in a dutch oven, a deep skillet, or a roasting pan (not cast iron). The size of your tool will depend upon the size of your ham. For a nine pound spiral ham like the one in this recipe, you’ll need at least a 5 quart dutch oven or 12-inch deep skillet.

How long to cook a spiral ham

Most store-bought hams are precooked. So what you’re really doing is just warming it back up and caramelizing the glaze on the outside. Bake your spiral ham at 250F for 15 minutes per pound, uncovered for the first half and covered for the second, for best results. Bake until the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer reaches 140F.

Keeping your ham from getting dry

The key here is low and slow, as well as moisture locking. My secret to success is a low oven 225-275F, uncovered for the first half of the allotted time, and covered with tinfoil the second half.

When to glaze a spiral ham

You’ll only need about 20 minutes for the glaze to set and caramelize on the spiral ham. So wait until your ham has reached 140F internally, remove from the oven, glaze, and set back in the oven for 20 minutes.

How to glaze a spiral ham to perfection

Baking it in a dutch oven, the juices will collect at the bottom. When removing the ham to glaze it in the final 20-30 minutes, I remove the juice with a baster as much as possible. Then glaze and return to the oven uncovered.

How to cut a spiral ham

Spiral hams come precut into horizontal slices around the bone. When they’re done cooking, cut from top to bottom and the slices will come off easily.

How much spiral ham per person

A serving of ham is 6 ounces per person. This recipe for the 9 pound ham will serve approximately 22 according to serving sizes. However, this includes the bone weight as well as the assumption that you and your guests can keep yourselves limited to just one slice. I know I can’t!

What to serve with spiral ham

Ham is a pretty hearty meat and often have some sort of honey or maple glaze on them to make them sticky sweet. So the best pairings are going to be more on the warm or citrus side to keep the ham the star of the show. Blanched broccoli, pureed butternut squash, dinner rolls, a winter salad, or a lite carrot soup are all great choices.

Spiral ham leftovers

One of my favorite things about large cuts of meat such as pulled pork, holiday ham, or Thanksgiving turkey is the leftovers. One day to cook a bunch of meat easily to be enjoyed in quick dishes for the rest of the week. One day of waiting for meat to cook low and slow means a week of fantastic flavor filled foods cooked up quickly for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

• Ham and Cheese Frittata
• Split Pea Soup
• Baked Ham and Cheese Pasta