Posted by Avid Armor on Apr 2nd 2021
I don’t know about you, but where I come from, my family loves a good cooked brown sugar and balsamic glazed ham for Easter, Christmas or even Thanksgiving!
Growing up, a tasty glazed ham has always been a family favorite tradition for our holiday meals. Last year I decided to shake things up a little bit by cooking our Easter ham sous vide style, instead of roasting it using a traditional cooking method. It is hard to mess up while cooking a ham, it is well known that they are one of the easiest meats to cook, and also one of the tastiest to eat. But, if you want to cook an even easier, and juicer ham then I highly recommend that you try cooking it sous vide style! It’s even better and easier this way because most hams are “pre cooked” so you just need to heat it up using a sous vide cooker.
“Sous Vide” is French for “under vacuum” so sous vide cooking is literally the art of vacuum-sealing food in a bag, then cooking it to a precise temperature in a bath of water. Sous vide cooking produces results that are impossible to achieve through any other cooking method, leaving meats juicer, and tastier then other traditional cooking methods.
To start, we removed the ham from its packaging, and seasoned it generously. We then vacuum sealed our Easter ham in anAvid Armor vacuum sealer bag using anAvid Armor A100 suction vacuum sealer. Due to the large size of the ham, we opted to use the A100 vacuum sealer because it is easy to vacuum seal large items, like an entire ham, using this sealer.
Once the ham is vacuum sealed, it is ready to be cooked sous vide! Here are the ingredients and kitchen tools that you will need to get started on this delicious brown sugar balsamic glazed Easter ham recipe.
Tools:
- Sous vide cooker
- Vacuum Sealer (we used an Avid Armor A100)
- Large Capacity Vacuum Sealer Bag or roll
Ingredients:
- 1 7-10lb bone-in half ham
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup balsamic vinegar
Directions:
- Fill a pot with water and place your Sous Vide cooker, preheating it to 140°F. Place the vacuum sealed ham in the water and leave it to cook for at least 3 hours or up to 8 hours.
- While the ham is cooking sous vide, heat 1 cup of brown sugar in a pan over medium-high heat until completely melted.
- Continue to cook the sugar until it is a deep brown but not black, and immediately add the 1 cup of balsamic vinegar. Make sure to stand back as you add it to the pan.
- Cook the brown sugar and balsamic vinegar mixture, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Reduce to a bare simmer and continue to cook for about 5 minutes until mixture is thick and syrupy. Set the glaze mixture aside for later.
- Move an oven rack to the lowest row of your oven. Then preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C) 30 minutes before serving ham.
- Remove ham from the water bath, remove the vacuum bag, and place the ham, cut side down on a foil-lined baking sheet.
- Wipe the Ham dry with paper towels and brush the glaze onto the Ham.
- Place the ham into the oven and roast for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes have passed, pull out the oven rack, apply another coat of glaze, and repeat. Repeat this step 2 more times before removing the ham from the oven and letting it rest for 5 minutes.
The only thing left is to carve up your ham, serve it and enjoy it! This brown sugar glazed ham is perfect and so tasty, enjoy it with your family and loved ones for any holiday meal like Easter, Christmas or Thanksgiving!
To carve the brown sugar, balsamic glazed Easter ham, place the cut side of the ham down on a cutting board and make a single slice right next to the bone, to divide the ham into two pieces. Next, place the boneless side with the new cut side facing down on the cutting board and thinly slice the ham into pieces sized for serving. Repeat with the rest of the ham, cut it off of the bone one section at a time and then slice it into serving size portions.
Don't forget to vacuum seal any left over you have to seal in all those great flavors!
FAQs
What kind of ham is best for Easter dinner? Look for a fully-cooked, bone-in ham that isn't spiral cut—it stays juicier in the oven! Shank-end hams are the big, beautiful ones you're used to seeing for the holidays and those work great here.
How long should I sous vide a ham? ›
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.
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.
Should Easter ham be served warm or cold? ›
Pre-cooked ham can be served directly from the refrigerator. If you'd like to serve it hot, heat in a 350° oven to an internal temperature of 140°. At 140°, the ham will be thoroughly warmed and moist.
What is considered the best ham in the world? ›
The combination of a unique and iconic pure breed, a longer curing process, strict POD standards , and traditional hand carving techniques, make Jamón Ibérico de Bellota the best in the world.
What is the most flavorful ham? ›
Bone-in ham
The bone provides the meat with better flavor and texture. As a bonus, the leftover bone is great for making soups and stews, like this Old-Fashioned Split Pea Soup. Bone-in hams are sold as half hams. When you opt for bone-in ham, you'll also need to consider the part of the ham you buy.
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.
What happens if you leave meat in sous vide too long? ›
Longer is not always better You don't always get better results by keeping food in the sous vide machine for longer. For example, many chefs recommend that sous vide steak should not be cooked for longer than four hours because the connective tissue begins to break down and the steak can become mushy.
Does a fully cooked ham have to reach 140? ›
Both whole or half, cooked, vacuum-packaged hams packaged in federally inspected plants and canned hams can be eaten cold, right out of the package. However, if you want to reheat these cooked hams, set the oven no lower than 325 °F and heat to an internal temperature of 140 °F as measured with a food thermometer.
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.
1. Cook it low and slow. This ensures that the meat doesn't dry out as your ham spends at least a couple hours in the oven. The ideal temperature to cook at is 325°, and for a bone-in half ham it will take 20 to 25 minutes per pound to cook at that low of a temperature.
Do you cook a ham face down or on its side? ›
Cook it cut-side down: Place the ham cut-side down in your pan to prevent it from drying out while baking. Cover it while cooking: Help the meat retain moisture by covering the ham or pan with aluminum foil before putting it in the oven.
What is the best ham for Easter dinner? ›
What most American cooks procure for Easter dinner is a wet-cured, lightly smoked, prebaked ham, what neighborhood butchers called a city ham, when there were still neighborhood butchers. There is nothing particularly urban about city ham, the meat expert Bruce Aidells said, but the name took hold as shorthand.
Are you not supposed to eat ham on Easter? ›
In most of the world, lamb is considered the traditional Easter meal, but in the U.S., the sweet, crunchy-glazed Honey Baked Ham reigns supreme.
How much ham per person for Easter? ›
The best rule of thumb for ham is to plan about 1/2 pound per person when picking a bone-in ham (it's heavier) and 1/3 pound if boneless. Look, at the end of the day, some people will eat more than expected, some will eat less—it'll even out.
What is the most popular meat for Easter? ›
We all know the two most popular meats in the world to serve as the centerpiece of an Easter dinner are lamb and ham. For most Americans, unlike most of the rest of the world, the choice is usually ham.
How far in advance should you buy ham for Easter? ›
You can store perishable ham safely according to these time limits: Uncooked ham, fully cooked spiral-sliced or unsliced ham, 3 to 5 days; ham after home cooking, 3 to 4 days.
What is the most premium ham? ›
While Jamón Ibérico de Bellota is the most expensive ham in the world, there are other varieties of Spanish ham that are also highly prized and luxurious. Jamón Ibérico de Recebo is another type of Iberian ham that is slightly less expensive than Jamón Ibérico de Bellota but still considered a delicacy.
Are Carando hams good? ›
It's juicy meaty and just outright delicious. It has the perfect amount of sweetness without being too sweet. I love that it was already cut and all it took was a quick warming up to enjoy it.
