Southern Honey Baked Ham

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Prepare a pan large enough to hold the ham and its juices by lining it with a few layers of heavy duty aluminum foil, or use one of those throw-away roasting pans for easy clean up.

Combine butter, brown sugar, honey, orange juice and spices in a double boiler or heavy nonstick saucepan. Heat on low until butter is melted and ingredients are evenly mixed. (I like to use the double boiler because the hot water will keep the glaze warm as you use it for basting.)

Place ham in the prepared pan and brush it with the warm glaze.

Bake the ham for 1 to 1- 1/2 hours – depending on size of ham. (Check packaging for exact cooking times.) Brush on additional glaze every 15 minutes or so.

Watch to make sure glaze does not burn. If it’s not brown enough for your taste, you can turn the broiler on for a bit to caramelize the top. I’ve known some to even add additional glaze with some extra brown sugar added and then use a kitchen butane torch to get that store-bought effect.

Let rest for about 10-15 minutes and serve. Or you can prepare the day ahead and serve cold.

Note: you can use pineapple, apple or pear juice instead of orange juice. Also, you can cover the ham with additional foil during the first half of the cooking time to keep the top of the ham from drying out.