Photography: John Paul Urizar. Styling: Michele Cranston.
This Christmas, elevate your holiday spread with this apple and cinnamon glazed Christmas ham. The half ham size is perfect for 10 guests, though we’ve included our tips for storing any leftover ham below.
The natural sweetness of the apples with the warm spice of cinnamon creates a delicious glaze that caramelises as it cooks, forming a golden ham glaze. This glazed Christmas ham is a succulent, melt-in-your-mouth dish that will leave your guests coming back for more.
Ingredients
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Line a large roasting pan with baking paper. Using a sharp knife, cut around shank end of ham 10cm from end. Starting at opposite end to shank, run your thumb under rind to carefully separate it from fat. Peel back and remove rind. Wrap shank end in foil.
Thickly slice onions horizontally; arrange on base of lined pan. Scatter rosemary and sage over onion, then place ham on top.
Using a mandoline or sharp knife, thinly slice 3 apples horizontally. Combine maple syrup, mustard and cinnamon in a small bowl. Brush 1/3 of the glaze lightly over ham. Season. Arrange remaining whole apples around ham.
Decorate surface of ham with apple slices, securing each with a clove. Brush with glaze.
Bake for 1 hour, basting with remaining glaze mixture every 15 minutes, or until golden and caramelised.
Transfer ham to a serving platter. Remove onions and apples from the pan. Finely chop the roast onions and the flesh of most of the apples; combine in a bowl and spoon over a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Serve alongside ham as a relish. Use remaining apples to garnish the ham.
How to store your ham?
The biggest challenge with storing leftover Christmas ham is keeping the meat from drying out. For this reason, it’s important to only carve as much as you need during the meal. The meat left on the ham bone will stay juicy for longer than slices of carved meat.
To store ham on the bone, it needs to be wrapped in a clean tea towel, a clean pillowcase, large piece of calico fabric or a purpose-made ham bag. Rinse your cloth of choice in a solution of 2 cups white vinegar and 2 litres (8 cups) of water, wring out tightly before wrapping the whole ham in the fabric and storing in the fridge. Change to a clean cloth every few days.Â
Of course, around Christmas it can be hard to find room in the fridge for a whole ham leg. If this is the case, you can remove the meat from the bone in large chunks and store, wrapped in plastic and then foil, in the fridge.
Can you freeze leftover Christmas ham?
Ham wrapped in plastic and foil and then frozen will last in the freezer for up to a month. Defrost frozen ham in the fridge for 1-2 days (depending on the size of the frozen portion) before eating. Dice offcuts of ham and freeze in small containers or zip-lock bags to use in these leftover ham recipe ideas – like fried rice, pasta dishes or omelettes.
