This is a recipe I grew up with and I loved coming home to the smell of brown sugar mustard ham glaze in the kitchen when my Mom was cooking up a storm! This glazed ham is full of flavour and the perfect option for serving in a holiday meal or Sunday dinner. The recipe is super easy to follow and the result is utterly mouth-watering, just wait and see for yourself!

sliced precooked ham with Brown Sugar Mustard Glaze in a plate

How do you make the brown sugar glaze for a ham?

Preheat your oven to 325 F.
Place the ham and a cup of water in a large roasting pan. Cover the ham completely with parchment paper, then cover the ham and the roasting pan completely with aluminum foil. Seal the foil around the edges completely to make sure that no moisture escapes.
Bake the ham until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the ham (not touching a bone!) registers 135 F. This can take 2-3 hours depending on the size of your ham.
Remove the ham from the oven. Whisk together the ham glaze ingredients in a medium saucepan on medium heat and then simmer for 1-2 minutes until it’s not as grainy. Remove.
Carefully score the top of the ham.
Pour half of the glaze on top of the ham, making sure to get it into the cracks that you scored into the rind.
Turn the heat up in the oven to 375 F. Return the ham to the oven, uncovered. Bake for another 25-30 minutes, basting every ten minutes with the remaining ham glaze. Bring the ham up to a temperature of 145 F and serve any time after that.

How do you make the best ham glaze?

Ham glaze adds magnificent flavour and texture to the ham so that it caramelizes on the surface. It’s important to get the balance of sweet and tangy just right with your glaze and rely on the ham itself for that savory salty extra. I used a brown sugar glaze for this ham because it tastes beyond amazing and it’s super easy to make. The sweet and slightly tangy flavour makes it smell and taste out of this world!

slicing a glazed precooked ham using a knife and fork

How do you glaze a precooked ham?

Adding a brown sugar glaze can give life to a precooked ham! To reheat your ham and add your glaze, add water to the bottom of your pan and cover it with foil (make sure it’s tightly covered). Bake at 325 °F for around 20 minutes per pound of meat until the thermometer hits 140° F. Then you can apply the glaze, ramp the heat up to 400 °F and bake for another 20 mins or so until the glaze is golden.

When your ham is baking, place all of your glaze ingredients into a saucepan on medium heat and then simmer. Don’t forget to stir regularly to avoid any lumps. Otherwise, if you’re like me, you might be distracted by something else and come back to a very lumpy looking glaze!!

When you’ve removed the ham from the over, base it with the glaze by working the glaze between the cuts in the ham. After this is done, you can return the ham to the oven for another 15-30 min until it’s ready! Those extra few minutes will give it a gorgeous golden glaze. Keep an eye on it though because it can burn once you go over the 15-minute mark!

a slice of glazed precooked ham in a meat fork

More main dish recipes for you to try

How to Cook a Boneless Pork Loin Roast: the way we cook boneless pork loin roast today is very different to when our parents did the cooking! Check out my updated recipe for this scrumptious main dish.
Mom’s Easy Honey Garlic Chicken: my mother-in-law deserves full credit for this one. Give it a go and your tastebuds will thank you for it!
Shrimp Alfredo: keep the entire family happy with just one meal!

Let me know if you get a chance to try this one out because it’s definitely one of my favorites! If you have any personal tips or recommendations to make it even more delish, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Karlynn