Sous Vide City Ham With Balsamic Brown Sugar Glaze Recipe (2024)

Why It Works

  • Since the ham is pre-seasoned, it can be cooked directly in the package it comes in, making the whole process easier.
  • Cooking the ham sous vide guarantees juiciness that extends all the way from the edge to the center.

Ham is not for everyone, but if you're a ham lover, lucky you, because ham is one meat that'sdarndifficult to mess up. Right off the bat, it's got several things going for it. First off, it's pork, which means it was born to be delicious. Second, it's got the right level of seasoning built into it—a good ham will have the right salt level all the way through to its very center. Third, because it's a cured product, it retains juices far better than a plain, raw product.

Want to make it even juicier andmorefoolproof? Cook the sucker sous vide. Because hams are precooked, it's really just a matter of reheating them. Typically, I'd suggest removing meat from its retail packaging, seasoning it, then resealing it in a sous vide bag before cooking it. But since ham's pre-seasoned, it can be cooked directly in the package it comes in, making the whole process even more appealing.

How to Sous Vide a City Ham

Step 1: Start With a Good Ham

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Hams come in various levels of quality, ranging from giant, chopped-and-formed Spam-like creations to actual whole-muscle cured and cooked cuts. The latter is what you're after. Once you move into the whole-muscle realm, even the standard supermarket option (Cook's brand is the most popular) will do, but you can also try a specialty ham, like thisKurobuta ham from Snake River Farmsif something a little more flavorful is on the agenda. For cooking in the oven, I'd generally recommend an un-sliced ham, as those spiral slices are a direct route to moisture loss. But with sous vide cooking, you're going to be heating the ham in a sealed plastic bag anyway, so spiral-cut hams will work just fine.

One thing to note: What you're looking for is a city ham, which is brined and cooked, as opposed to a country ham, which is salted and cured raw in the air, like a prosciutto or serrano.

Step 2: Warm It Up

Since city hams come precooked, you can serve them cold straight out of their packaging, but they're better when warmed up. If you're cooking ham using conventional means, this involves slow-roasting it using foil or an oven bag to attempt to keep those juices from drying out. With sous vide cooking, it's as simple as dumping the ham into a water bath, directly in its packaging. I cook my hams at 140°F (60°C) for three hours to guarantee that they're piping-hot through to the center.

Step 3: Make the Glaze

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Hams, with their smokiness and natural porky sweetness, have an affinity for sweet-and-sour glazes (hence the whole pineapple-and-cherry thing). In this case, I've made a quick brown sugar and balsamic vinegargastriqueby caramelizing some brown sugar in a saucepan, then deglazing it with balsamic vinegar and letting it reduce down into a sticky glaze. You could just as easily use any other type of vinegar and sugar.

Step 4: Preheat the Oven

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Once the ham is reheated, the only thing left to do is glaze it. In order to get that glaze to stick, you want to brush it on and then roast the ham in a very hot oven so that the glaze further reduces and coats the meat. A 500°F (260°C) oven is ideal.

Step 5: Give It the First Coat

As with painting a wall, the best way to build up a good, even coat of glaze is to work in layers. Start by painting one layer on before popping the ham into the preheated oven.

Step 6: Repeat Glaze

Continue brushing the ham with fresh glaze every five minutes, for a total of three or four coats. When the ham is shiny and shellacked all over, you're done.

Step 7: Get Ready to Make the First Cut

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I'm a fan of practicality in the kitchen, which means that I'd rather serve my ham pre-sliced and ready to eat than fumble around at the dining room table trying to serve it. Here's the easiest way I know to slice a bone-in ham.

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It can be rather impressive to make lots of thin, parallel cuts toward the bone, so that you can then release the slices all with a single downward stroke, but here's a much easier way to do it: Start with that vertical cut first. To do this, identify where the bone is (hint—it's where that big, bone-shaped knobby bit sticks out of the ham), then slice down along one side of it.

Step 8: Cut Serving Portions

Rotate the piece you just cut off so that the cut side is facing down, then slice it into thin serving portions. You'll notice that, because of the gentle, in-the-bag preheating, your ham is about as moist as you could hope for, with a juiciness that extends all the way from the edge to the center.

Step 9: Profit

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Serve up that ham with some good wine, a big fork, and extra glaze tableside.

December 2013

Recipe Details

Sous Vide City Ham With Balsamic Brown Sugar Glaze Recipe

Cook3 hrs 25 mins

Active20 mins

Total3 hrs 25 mins

Serves8to 12 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 bone-in half ham (7 to 10 pounds; 3.2 to 4.5kg), packing intact (see notes)

  • 1 cup (about 225g) brown sugar

  • 1 cup (240ml) balsamic vinegar

Directions

  1. Preheat sous vide cooker to 140°F (60°C). Add ham and cook for at least 3 hours and up to 8 hours. Meanwhile, heat brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until melted. Continue to cook until deep brown but not black, and immediately add all of balsamic vinegar, standing back as you add it. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. Reduce to a bare simmer and continue to cook until mixture is thick and syrupy and coats the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

    Sous Vide City Ham With Balsamic Brown Sugar Glaze Recipe (8)

  2. Adjust oven rack to lower position and preheat oven to 500°F (260°C) 30 minutes before serving ham. Allow oven to preheat for 15 minutes. Remove ham from water bath, remove packaging, and place cut side down on a rack set in a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Wipe surface dry with paper towels and brush with glaze.

    Sous Vide City Ham With Balsamic Brown Sugar Glaze Recipe (9)

  3. Place in oven and roast for 5 minutes. Pull out oven rack, apply another coat of glaze, and repeat. Repeat glazing step 2 more times. Remove ham from oven and let rest 5 minutes.

  4. To carve ham, place cut side down on a cutting board and make a single slice right next to the bone, dividing ham in two. Place boneless side with the newly cut side facing down and slice thinly into serving pieces. Repeat with remaining ham, cutting it from the bone one section at a time before slicing it into serving portions.

    Sous Vide City Ham With Balsamic Brown Sugar Glaze Recipe (10)

Special Equipment

Sous vide immersion circulator, rimmed baking sheet and wire rack

Notes

Most hams come in thick vacuum-sealed packaging that can be used for sous vide cooking. If not, seal your ham in a vacuum-sealed bag before cooking it sous vide.

Read More

  • The Food Lab's Definitive Guide to Buying and Cooking Hams
  • Sous Vide Pork
  • Ham
  • Pork Mains
  • Easter
  • Christmas Dinners
Sous Vide City Ham With Balsamic Brown Sugar Glaze Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Do you put the glaze on a ham before you cook it or after you cook it? ›

The glaze should not be applied until the final hour to 30 minutes, in order to avoid burning the sugars. What you're going to do with the glaze ingredients is just combine most of them into a paste, and then apply it to the ham. After that, the heat in your oven will take care of everything.

How long to cook ham in sous vide? ›

Preheat sous vide cooker to 140°F (60°C). Add ham and cook for at least 3 hours and up to 8 hours.

How long to heat and glaze a fully cooked ham? ›

Place in a 325-to-350-degree oven, brush with some glaze if desired and bake until heated through and the internal temperature reaches 135 degrees. Again, figure no more than 10 minutes per pound. An 8-pounder will take 1 hour and 20 minutes.

What is honeybaked ham glaze made of? ›

Heat the honey, corn syrup, and butter in a double boiler to make the glaze. Brush the glaze over the ham and bake in a foil-lined pan for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, brushing every 15 minutes or so with the glaze. Broil the ham for a few minutes before removing it from the oven.

What is brown sugar glaze made of? ›

directions. Combine 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 1/2 teaspoons dry or prepared mustard, 1/8 tsp cinnamon and 3 tablespoons dry sherry (optional), 3 tablespoons vinegar and 3 tablespoons water.

Should I cover ham with aluminum foil? ›

If you don't cover your ham while cooking it will quickly dry out. Instead: Put some aluminum foil over your ham while it's cooking. It is recommended that the ham is covered for at least half of the cooking process and only removed during the last half when you glaze it.

Does meat get more tender the longer you sous vide? ›

Sous vide allows for long, slow cooking at a low temperature, which breaks down these tissues and results in tender, juicy meat. Prepare the meat with generous salt and any other desired seasonings, then cook for a long time at a low temperature.

Can you overcook meat in a sous vide? ›

So, while it's certainly very difficult to overcook your food using sous vide, to say that it's impossible is a little bit of an overstatement. Just remember that while you technically can't 'overcook' your food, the quality could start to decline if it's left to cook for a lot longer than is recommended.

What temperature is sous vide cooked at? ›

Strip and Ribeye Steak
Preferred DonenessTemperatureTime
Very rare to rare120°F / 49°C to 128°F / 53°C1h to 2h 30m
Medium-rare129°F / 54°C to 134°F / 57°C1h to 4h
Medium135°F / 57°C to 144°F / 62°C1h to 4h
Medium-well145°F / 63°C to 155°F / 68°C1h to 3h 30m
1 more row

Does a fully cooked ham have to reach 140 degrees? ›

If reheating is desired, hams that were packaged in processing plants under USDA inspection must be heated to 140°F as measured with a food thermometer. Leftover spiral-cut hams or ham that has been repackaged in any other location outside the plant, must be heated to 165°F.

What is the best way to cook a precooked ham? ›

If the ham is labeled "fully cooked" (does not require heating), heat it in the oven for about 10 minutes per pound, or to an internal temperature of 140 F. If the ham is labeled "cook before eating," heat in an oven set no lower than 325 F to an internal temperature of at least 145 F.

How long to cook a 10 lb fully cooked ham at 350 degrees? ›

WARMING HAM
  1. Heat oven to 350°F. Place ham, flat side down, on rack in shallow roasting pan; cover tightly with aluminum foil.
  2. Bake approximately 13 to 18 minutes per pound until heated through.
  3. Remove ham from oven. Glaze as directed below or let stand, covered, 10 minutes before serving.

Why does Honey Baked Ham taste so good? ›

First, our Honey Baked Ham products start with a rigorous selection process, then the meat is smoked for up to 24 hours with our special blend of hardwood chips. The result is that every rich and flavorful bite, and every slice, is fall-apart-in-your-mouth perfect. There's something about that sweet, crunchy glaze.

How do you use the glaze packet that comes with the ham? ›

Whether you heat your spiral ham in the slow cooker or oven, all you have to do is open the glaze packet and apply it 30 minutes before your ham is finished cooking. By the time it's ready to serve, you'll have a satiny-glazed ham without any of the time or effort it takes to make a ham glaze.

What is the point of glazing ham? ›

However, glazing a ham adds that special final touch if you want to wow your crowd with extra flavor and texture. Learn how to score and when to glaze a ham, and what ingredients to combine for a salty-sweet flavor, honey-glazed, or mustard-covered ham.

Is glazed ham precooked? ›

The thing with glazed ham is that it doesn't actually need to be cooked because it's already cooked. It's just about getting that glaze just right! Cool for 2 – 3 hours on the counter until you can barely feel warmth when you hover your hand over the surface.

What is the best way to cook a ham without drying it out? ›

How do you bake a ham without drying it out? Spiral cut hams should be covered with aluminum foil to help retain moisture when re heating. You could also place a foil pan with water underneath the ham to create some steam inside the oven to keep everything moist.

Do you cook a precooked ham, covered or uncovered? ›

Bake the ham in the preheated oven, uncovered, for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest portion registers 140°F, basting every 30 minutes with 1/2 cup of the glaze. Be sure to keep an eye on the ham, and cover it loosely with foil if it starts getting too dark.

References

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