The Best Ham Glaze Recipe (2024)

This ham glaze is a combination of butter, brown sugar, pineapple juice and spices, all simmered together until thickened and delicious. Coat a ham in this glaze, then bake the ham to golden brown perfection and watch the rave reviews come in.

When the holidays roll around, I always make family favorite side dishes including crockpot mashed potatoes, candied yams, and this brown sugar glaze served over a spiral cut ham, for an epic Easter or Christmas dinner.

Ham Glaze Ingredients

To make a sweet and thick ham glaze you will need butter, brown sugar, pineapple juice, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and ground cloves.

How Do You Make Ham Glaze?

To make this ham glaze recipe, place butter, brown sugar, pineapple juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a pan or saucepan. Bring the pan to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Boil the glaze for 5-7 minutes or until it has started to thicken and become syrupy. Cool the glaze slightly, then brush or pour it over a ham in a roasting pan. Bake the ham covered in foil. When the ham is just about done, uncover it and pour the rest of the glaze on the ham. Place the ham back in the oven a few minutes until the glaze caramelizes. Remove the ham from the oven, slice it and enjoy!

Tips For The Perfect Glaze

• This recipe works with both dark brown sugar and light brown sugar. The light brown sugar produces a more neutral flavor, while dark brown sugar has a stronger molasses flavor.
• You can use fresh, frozen concentrate or canned pineapple juice. They all work well in this recipe.
• You can store the glaze at room temperature for up to 2 hours before it goes on the ham or while you wait for your ham to bake.
• If your glaze cools and becomes overly thick, you can microwave it for about 30 seconds to loosen it back up again.
• Use freshly ground nutmeg if you can, the flavor is way superior to ground bottled nutmeg. You can buy whole nutmegs and grate them yourself on a microplane grater.
• Homemade ham glaze will work with both bone-in ham and boneless ham. If you’re using boneless ham, you’ll want to score it using a sharp knife in a diamond pattern first.
• Leftover ham will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Flavor Variations

This is a basic recipe to get you started, there are so many different ingredients you can add to customize it to your tastes.

• Juice: Try using apple cider, cranberry juice, pomegranate juice or orange juice instead of pineapple juice.
• Spices: Mix up the spices by using ground ginger, allspice or cardamom. You can also stick some whole cloves into the ham if you like.
• Sweetener: You can substitute up to half of the brown sugar with a different sweetener such as honey or maple syrup.
• Pineapple: You can use toothpicks to place pineapple rings on your ham. Simply pour your glaze over the ham and pineapple rings.
• Flavorings: Feel free to add other flavorings to your glaze. Add up to 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard for a savory kick, or 2 minced canned chipotle peppers for some heat. You can also add up to 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple to add texture to the glaze. Stir in a splash of apple cider vinegar for a sweet and sour option.

I serve this recipe for every holiday and it always gets rave reviews! The pineapple and brown sugar pair beautifully with the flavor of a baked ham, and people always ask for seconds.

Ham Glaze Video