You know I've always avoided those because I've never had a good one. I honestly thought they were only good for potlucks and sandwiches.
Last Christmas my daughter wanted to buy the hams. I didn't notice until Christmas eve they were spiral hams. I looked it up and it appears that most people don't know how to cook em. I packed my ham ( I didn't take a chance on the included glaze ). Cooked it to about 125 and wrapped it. It turned out really well although the bottom few layers were crap ( IMHO). People ate it when they picked at things after dinner calling it ham candy.
A spiral ham simply means it's pre-cut with a spiral slicer. Hams come in three cuts: whole, butt (triangle shaped), and shank (rounded end). I'm a big fan of the butt spiral cut because it has more usable meat. The reason most hams suck is people either undercook them or cook them at too high of a heat. Ham cooks best around 250F for 3-4 hours or until the internal temp hits 125F. Once you get there, start basting it with a sugar-based glaze every 10 minutes. The glaze will start to caramelize and stick to the meat. Wrap it up and let it sit for 30-60 minutes before carving. The rendered fat and tender meat is absolutely heavenly! I do mine on a smoker and the flavor is like a sweet pulled pork.
If anyone is interested, it took a year of trial and error to get this down, but this is my recipe:
Double Smoked Ham:
1 10-13lb butt ham (shank will work too, butt is better)
8 pineapple rings
Maraschino cherries
Favorite KC rib rub (my favorite:
https://www.thespruce.com/kansas-city-rib-rub-recipe-335915)
Cheap Yellow Mustard (CYM)
Glaze:
3 cups light brown sugar
3 tbs Dijon or English mustard
1/3 cup honey
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
½ cup whole pecans (OPTIONAL)
12 oz Dr. Pepper (do not use diet)
2 tbs butter
Glaze Preparation-
Add sugar and honey to a stainless steel pot on medium heat until it starts to melt. Once the sugar begins to get pasty, stir in pecans, butter, mustard, and vinegar. Let all ingredients incorporate for 5 minutes, then slowly add the Dr. Pepper. Lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes (make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan- a wooden or silicone spatula works well here). Let the glaze cool- it should end up the consistency of pancake syrup when cooled. If you’d like it thicker, simmer for an additional 15 minutes.
Ham Preparation-
-Get smoker up to temperature (250F), and add dry pecan or maple wood chips to get white smoke rolling
-Slather CYM all over ham, then generously apply KC rib rub. The mustard acts as a bonding agent for the rub- it doesn’t add anything to the flavor. You can do this the night before.
-Add a water pan underneath the smoker rack to catch any drippings from the ham. Use boiling water to prevent smoker temperature issues. Feel free to use apple juice instead of water.
-Place ham flat side down over the water pan
-Cook ham until it reaches an internal temperature of 120F, then take it off the smoker and place on a cutting board.
-Attach pineapple and cherries to outside of ham using toothpicks, then brush on a generous coat of glaze. Wrap the ham loosely in foil, and return to the smoker.
- Apply a coat of glaze every 10 minutes or so, and repeat 4-5 times. The glaze will begin to thicken. TIP: put the ham in a foil pan or make a tray out of foil to catch the drippings.
- Remove the ham from the grill and wrap tightly in foil. Let the ham sit 30-60 minutes before carving.
The internal temp will rise to 135-140F on its own. At this temperature the fat begins to render, but the meat stays nice and moist. The extra smoke flavor and the sweet/spicy glaze coating with the smoked pecans take everything over the top! This is the best ham you’ll ever eat