Marmalade-Glazed Ham

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons cider vinegar (see Notes)
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Nonstick cooking spray
1 bone-in fully cooked, smoked ham half (about 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 pounds)

Position the oven rack in middle of the oven, and preheat it to 325 degrees F.

Combine brown sugar, marmalade, mustard, vinegar, and cloves in a small microwave-safe mixing bowl. Stir well. Microwave, uncovered on high, for 1 minute to loosen marmalade enough to mix in and spread easily. Remove glaze from microwave, and stir. Set aside.

Line a roasting pan or large casserole dish with foil, and spray foil with nonstick cooking spray. Cut off skin of ham (it’s dark-colored and rough). Trim away any excess fat, if necessary. Place ham on the foil, flat side down, and spoon glaze over ham to coat it. Rub glaze into ham with back of a spoon to make sure all parts are covered.

Place ham in oven, and bake 15 minutes per pound*, or until a meat thermometer registers 140 degrees F. Baste ham with remaining glaze 3 more times while cooking. (Do not rub glaze into the ham with spoon as before for these subsequent glazings, or you will rub off glaze that has begun to bake on. Just spoon glaze over ham, and it will spread easily on hot ham.) Tent top with foil if ham begins to get too brown in final minutes of baking.

Remove ham from oven, and let it stand 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

* Notes

If your orange marmalade is the fruit-only type, reduce the amount of vinegar to 2 tablespoons.

To figure out how long to bake ham, multiply number of pounds by 15 minutes. Then round off cooking time to nearest hour and 5-minute point. (For example, a ham weighing 7 1/2 pounds will cook for about 1 hour and 50 minutes. An 8-pound ham will cook for 2 hours.)

Some cooks like to score the fat on the outside of a ham, and push cloves into the resulting X’s of the crosshatch pattern. This does make for a pretty presentation and good flavor, but jars of whole cloves are very expensive. We get the same flavor at a vastly lower cost by stirring a little ground cloves into our glaze. However, if you already have whole cloves that you need to use, feel free to stud your ham instead.

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