Cranberry Glazed Christmas Ham
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This Cranberry Glazed Christmas Ham is a festive showstopper, perfect for holiday gatherings and is surprisingly easy to make. The sweet and tangy cranberry glaze beautifully complements the savoury, tender ham, creating a rich, flavourful dish. The glaze, made with cranberry sauce, mustard and balsamic vinegar caramelises during roasting, giving the ham a gorgeous, glossy finish. It's a delicious and impressive centrepiece for your Christmas Dinner Table.
Table of contents
This glazed ham recipe is so simple. The ham is cooked for 90 minutes in a flavourful broth of apple juice, apple cider and fennel and is then baked in the oven to finish, brushed with the most delicious sticky glaze which chars beautifully.
Baking a Christmas Ham will pay you many dividends over the festive season. It serves as a delicious main course for the celebratory meals which surround Christmas day and you will reap the rewards throughout the lull before New Year when you'll thrive happily from the ham cold cuts. I make this recipe every single year for our Christmas Eve Dinner and serve it with a lovely Christmas Coleslaw recipe and a cheeseboard. It's the start of our Christmas celebrations and I'll show you how easy it is to make, even amongst all the holiday chaos.
Why this is the Best Christmas Ham recipe
- Perfect balance of sweet and savoury flavours. The intense cooking broth penetrates the meat which is complemented by the final tangy cranberry glaze.
- Tender and juicy meat. The simmering of the ham in the broth means that it really takes on moisture and then adding a little ladleful of that broth during the bake ensures the ham retains moisture and produces a really succulent result.
- Easy to prepare. This is essential when you will no doubt have another hundred different cooking tasks you need to be doing.
- Impressive presentation. The finished result truly looks glorious with the lovely pink meat contrasting against the ruby red glaze. It really will add a wow factor to your holiday dinner.
- Delicious hot or cold. So ideal for serving leftover ham the next day as part of your festive buffet.
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Ingredients needed
To cook the ham
Unsmoked gammon. This is a joint of raw ham (choose rolled ham rather than bone-in ham). It's only referred to as 'ham' once it's cooked, and so it's actually 'gammon' you are looking for when you are ordering it from your butcher. Don't be confused and buy 'ham' as that will already be cooked and this recipe will be no good to you. You could also choose smoked gammon if you prefer a stronger smokier flavour.
Apple juice. This adds a real sweetness to the cooking broth. Any kind will do - you don't need it to be a pressed organic kind, just supermarket own brand is fine.
Cider. This provides the broth with a punchy apple flavour.
Aromatics. Onion, celery, fennel, garlic are used to flavour the stock.
Herbs and spice. Fresh parsley and woody bay, star anise, fennel and black pepper.
Whole cloves. These are used to stud over the cooked ham and imbue the meat with festive warmth.
For the cranberry glaze
Cranberry sauce. Using shop bought cranberry sauce is fine here. Save the homemade stuff to accompany it at the table.
Dijon mustard. It adds a lovely rich flavour. You could swap for wholegrain or English mustard if you prefer.
Balsamic vinegar. This gives the simple glaze a lovely tang to balance out the sweetness.
How To Make Cranberry Glazed Ham
For full recipe instructions go to the recipe card at the end of this post.
Initial boil. Place the gammon in a large stockpot and cover with water then bring to a rolling boil. Remove the gammon and pour out the water, giving the stockpot a rinse.
Cook the gammon in the broth. Place the gammon back into the stockpot and add all the broth ingredients, adding more water to cover the gammon completely. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 90 minutes.
Drain and score. Remove the gammon (now 'ham' since it's cooked) from the broth, cut off the outer skin from the ham but leave the thick layer of fat. Score the fat in a diamond pattern and stud with whole cloves.
Glaze. Whiz up the ingredients for the glaze until smooth. Place the ham in a large roasting pan lined with foil, then brush half of the glaze all over the surface of the ham.
Bake. Place in a pre-heated oven with a ladleful of the stock and bake for 30 minutes, brushing over the rest of the glaze occasionally during the bake. Remove from the oven and rest for 20 minutes before carving and serving.
Tips and troubleshooting
- Boil your gammon in water first. I recommend to give your ham an initial boil with just a stockpot full of cold water to wash off all the excess salt. Just drain the water off and rinse the stockpot before you begin the recipe proper. It was a very unfortunate incident a few years ago when I skipped this stage as the butcher told me the gammon didn't need pre-boiling, but the finished result was totally inedible due to how salty it was. Do it anyway, despite butcher instructions.
- Cover the gammon completely. If your broth ingredients don’t quite cover the gammon, top up with extra water.
- Cooking time for the gammon. For the initial boil of the ham you need 20 minutes per 450g (1lb).
- What to do with the ham broth. This actually isn't my favourite broth to save as it's so sweet due to the apple juice and the cider. We have made a ham risotto with it before with the leftover ham included but the whole dish was too sweet. For this recipe I would say don't bother saving it.
- Clove warning. The look of the ham studded with cloves is beautiful. However, in recent years as I’ve been serving the ham up to the children I have not actually studded the ham since the cloves were proving to be a bit of a hazard. Instead if I’m serving to children I add ¼ teaspoon ground cloves to the glaze before warming and I omit the whole cloves.
Serving suggestions
Mashed Potatoes and Parsley Sauce. A gorgeous creamy mash is an idea accompaniment and my mum always serves it with parsley sauce too - so I couldn't not include it!
Christmas Coleslaw and a resplendent cheeseboard (this is how we always serve it!). Don't forget the chutney!
Cauliflower Cheese. Again, this Christmas ham with a creamy side dish is perfect. Add some lightly toasted gluten-free sourdough and it's heavenly.
Festive Braised Red Cabbage. This is a lovely vegetable side dish which adds to the holiday spirit.
Other ideas: Roasted root vegetables, gluten-free macaroni cheese, roast potatoes - these are all great options.
FAQs
This ham is delicious hot or cold. It is tradition in our house to make it on Christmas Eve and serve it that night for supper warm from the oven.
However, it is delicious cold too so you can make it the day before you want to serve it. Wrap up well in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 3 days before you want to serve it.
You can freeze leftover slices of the ham. Just wrap up well (double wrap if possible to avoid freezer burn) and store in slices for up to 2 months in the freezer. Allow to defrost completely overnight before serving.
Leftover Ham Ideas
- Ham Quiche: Mix diced ham into this lovely gluten-free cheese quiche made with homemade gluten-free pastry.
- Ham Pasta Bake: Toss ham with gluten-free pasta, roasted tomato sauce and bake with a gluten-free breadcrumb topping.
- Ham Risotto: Stir into creamy risotto for a hearty, flavourful meal.
- Chicken and Ham Pie: Combine with chicken and leeks in this deliciously creamy pie.
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Cranberry Glazed Christmas Ham
Ingredients
- 2 kg unsmoked gammon
- 400 g apple juice
- 500 g cider
- 1 large onion - roughly chopped
- 2 sticks celery - roughly chopped
- 1 head fennel - roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic - lightly crushed
- small bunch of parsley stalks
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 star anise
- 1 tablepooon fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
Glaze:
- 1-2 tablespoons cloves
- 150 g cranberry sauce
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
Instructions
- Place the gammon in a very large saucepan and cover with water. Heat until the water is at a rolling boil.
- Remove the gammon and pour out the water, giving the pan a rinse.
- Place the gammon back into the pan and add all the ingredients (except the ones for the glaze). Top up with water to cover the gammon.
- Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 90 minutes (one and a half hours).
- Remove the gammon (which is now called ‘ham’ since it is cooked) from the liquid and allow to rest whilst you prepare the glaze.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°C / 180°C fan assisted / gas mark 6 / 400°F.
- Remove the string from the ham. If it has a thick outer skin on top of the fat then cut that away so only the thick layer of fat remains beneath.
- Make a large diamond pattern into the fat with a very sharp knife, being sure not to pierce the meat. Then place a clove into each diamond.
- Blitz the ingredients for the glaze in a small bowl using an immersion blender until smooth. Then brush half of the glaze all over the ham.
- Place the ham in the oven on a foil lined roasting tin with a ladleful of the cooking liquid at the base of the pan. Roast for 30-35 minutes, basting the ham with the rest of the glaze twice (after 10 and 20 minutes) during the roast.
- Remove the ham from the oven and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes before carving and serving.
Notes
- For the initial boil of the ham you need 20 minutes per 450g (1lb).
- The ham is delicious hot or cold. Once cooked wrap up well and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days before you want to serve it.
Ingredient measurements
- Please note when you see ‘grams’ listed as opposed to ‘millilitres,’ or any other term of measurement, that is not incorrect. I weigh all of my ingredients, including liquids, for accuracy.
