Four glazes for your Christmas ham

Glazing a ham is incredibly easy, you're really just creating a mix to cover the fat that wil brown up in the oven and make it look pretty.

Remove the ham skin and any excess fat, leaving as thick a layer of fat as desired. Score the ham on the diagonal to create diamond shapes. Many say you should not cut right through to the meat to avoid the ham drying out, but I like to because the meat takes on more flavour.

Follow the cooking instructions as per the weight of your ham, or for a general rule, bake in a 170C oven until the ham is a dark golden brown colour and it has heated through to approx 60C on an inserted meat thermometer.

Try variations on studding the ham, such as using a combination of cloves and star anise barbs, and rub or brush the glaze liberally all over it.

I find that cooking the ham in a liquid bath (a 2cm depth of liquid in the roasting dish) ensures the juices do not burn on the dish and it allows you to spoon the glaze back on to the ham as it cooks and, if you're lucky, will provide a tasty gravy to serve it with.

If the glaze looks like it's colouring too fast, use a lower temperature and cover with foil.

Spicy Asian glaze

3cm fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves
5 kaffir lime leaves
1 green chilli, or more to taste
2 limes, zest and juiced
3 tsp five spice
1 tsp salt
½ cup palm sugar, grated, or brown sugar
Star anise, for studding ham
1 bottle apple juice or cider

1. Roughly chop ginger, garlic cloves, kaffir lime leaves and green chillies.
2. Add the zest and juice of limes and blitz all to a smooth paste in a food processor.
3. Remove to a bowl, add five spice powder, salt and grated palm sugar (or brown sugar) and mix.
4. Stud the scored ham with whole star anise and rub on the glaze.
5. Bake in a roasting dish in a shallow bath of fresh apple juice or cider and baste ham frequently as you go.

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Tropical pineapple and orange glaze

½ cup brown sugar

½ pineapple, chopped

1 large orange, zest and juiced

1 bottle coconut water, or citrus juice, for bath

Pineapple rings for garnish

1. In a food processor, blitz brown sugar with chopped pineapple and the zest and juice of the orange
2. Score ham, rub on the glaze and garnish with slices of pineapple or orange (skin on).
3. Bake in a roasting dish with a shallow bath of fresh coconut water (or citrus juice) and baste ham frequently as you go.

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Rum and cola glaze

½ cup rum
⅓ cup maple syrup
1 lemon, zest and juiced
1-2 Tbsp dijon or hot mustard
Cloves, for studding ham
1 can cola, Karma Cola is what I used.

1. Mix rum with maple syrup, the zest and juice of a lemon, and Dijon or hot mustard.
2. Score and stud ham with cloves.
3. Brush the glaze all over, bake in shallow bath of Karma Cola (or your favourite cola) and baste ham frequently as you go.

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Chipotle and plum glaze

2-3 chipotle peppers (in adobo sauce)
1 cup plum sauce (or canned black doris plums in syrup)
½ cup sake (or white wine)
⅓ cup rice wine or cider vinegar
Sprigs of fresh thyme
1 cinnamon stick
a few cardamom pods
1 bay leaf
1 bottle of citrus or apple juice

1. Finely chop chipotle peppers (in adobo sauce) and add to a saucepan with plum sauce (or use canned black doris plums in syrup), sake (or white wine) and rice wine or cider vinegar.
2. Add fresh thyme, cinnamon stick, a few cardamom pods and a bay leaf and gently simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Cool and strain to remove herbs and spices.
4. Remove skin from ham, score ham, rub the glaze all over and bake in a shallow bath of citrus or apple juice, basting frequently as you go.

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