Ree's Dr Pepper-Glazed Ham Is the Only Recipe You'll Need This Easter (2024)

FAQs

What is the best kind of ham to cook for Easter? ›

Boneless hams are delicious and easy to prepare. These hams are pre-cooked, and they heat up more quickly than pre-cooked bone-in hams. Plus they can be easily sliced for quick service, so you can spend more time eating and less time carving.

The glaze should not be applied until the final hour to 30 minutes, in order to avoid burning the sugars. What you're going to do with the glaze ingredients is just combine most of them into a paste, and then apply it to the ham. After that, the heat in your oven will take care of everything.

Before the advent of modern refrigeration, pigs were often slaughtered in the fall, and the meat was preserved through the winter months using salt and smoke. By the time spring arrived, the preserved ham was ready to be consumed, making it a natural choice for a celebratory Easter feast.

WATCH: How to Glaze a Ham

Bourbon, apple juice, pineapple juice, or orange juice are delicious in a ginger ale glaze. Cola adds caramel sweetness to a ham glaze and can stand up to other strong ingredients like bourbon and cloves.

Bone-in ham

The bone provides the meat with better flavor and texture. As a bonus, the leftover bone is great for making soups and stews, like this Old-Fashioned Split Pea Soup. Bone-in hams are sold as half hams. When you opt for bone-in ham, you'll also need to consider the part of the ham you buy.

Pre-cooked ham can be served directly from the refrigerator. If you'd like to serve it hot, heat in a 350° oven to an internal temperature of 140°. At 140°, the ham will be thoroughly warmed and moist.

Not Covering Your Ham

If you don't cover your ham while cooking it will quickly dry out. Instead: Put some aluminum foil over your ham while it's cooking. It is recommended that the ham is covered for at least half of the cooking process and only removed during the last half when you glaze it.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place the ham on a rack in a large baking pan and add about 1/4- to 1/2 inch of water to the pan. If the ham is labeled "fully cooked" (does not require heating), heat it in the oven for about 10 minutes per pound, or to an internal temperature of 140 F.

For ages, Christians have avoided eating meat on Easter Sunday. Many individuals, devout or not, continue to eat solely fish on this day. Every year, millions of people around the world observe the tradition of eating fish on Easter.

In most of the world, lamb is considered the traditional Easter meal, but in the U.S., the sweet, crunchy-glazed Honey Baked Ham reigns supreme.

Why do you not eat meat at Easter? ›

Christians don't just observe the Friday fast at Easter, throughout Lent it is observed. The idea of the tradition is that Jesus sacrificed his own flesh on Good Friday and thus meat is given up in substitute.

“Typically, when you're doing a country ham, you need something sweet to neutralize the ham's saltiness, and pineapple does this really well.” And it's not just me and Benton: Pineapple shows up in ham recipes—atop the ham, in glazes slicking the ham, in shield-your-eyes versions of fried rice—the world over.

Flavor Variations

Juice: Try using apple cider, cranberry juice, pomegranate juice or orange juice instead of pineapple juice. Spices: Mix up the spices by using ground ginger, allspice or cardamom. You can also stick some whole cloves into the ham if you like.

Peach preserves, hot pepper jelly, and maple syrup work as sweet bases for glazes that add sheen as well as distinct flavor. Tasty additions such as aromatics, herbs, and spices switch up a traditional ham and make it truly memorable.

It really depends on what you like and how many people you're serving! We liked both whole and spiral-cut hams and didn't have a preference for bone-in or boneless.

With a bone-in ham, plan on one-third to one-half pound of meat per person (or two to three servings per pound), or more if you want leftovers. For a boneless ham, figure about quarter-pound per person, or more for leftovers.

While Jamón Ibérico de Bellota is the most expensive ham in the world, there are other varieties of Spanish ham that are also highly prized and luxurious. Jamón Ibérico de Recebo is another type of Iberian ham that is slightly less expensive than Jamón Ibérico de Bellota but still considered a delicacy.