In my family a glazed ham is the default meat prepared and served for holiday celebrations whether it is Christmas, New Year, Easter or we’re having a bunch of people around. Mum would pick up a ham from the supermarket and prepare with a Watties plum sauce and dole pineapple rings and it would then be put in the oven until it was heated all the way through. Sometimes dad would even put it in the old hooded gas barbecue.
This Easter was the first Easter that Sarah and I have been able to spend together at home after being away with our own families previously. So what better way to carry on old traditions by creating new traditions by using mum’s tried and true glazed ham method but giving it the Weber treatment.
This Easter we shared this fantastic Weber Smoked Glazed Ham with some of our close friends. I’m happy to report it was a great success and I look forward to doing this again for years to come. Nothing quite like creating new traditions while carrying on traditions of old.
What is a Ham?
A ham is a cured or smoked piece of pork traditionally made from the hind leg part of the pig. In the supermarket you will see plain old pork leg roasts and legs of ham. The main difference is the ham has already been “cooked” in some way. When selecting your ham, don’t be discouraged if it is listed as cooked as if it was uncooked it would be a pork leg roast.
For this dish select a cooked ham, preferably without any glazing or flavouring and sized to your needs.
I selected a 4kg piece of ham for this occasion.
Preparing the Ham
The star of the show for this dish besides the ham is the glaze. The glaze is made up of:
- Oriental Plum Sauce
- Pineapple Slices
- Whole Cloves
That’s all there is to it. Easy, simple and delicious and just the same as mum has always made it. No need to change something that works every time.
Begin by placing the ham in a foil tray and remove the skin while leaving a layer of fat on the ham. With a sharp knife score the fat layer both ways so you are left with intersecting squares of fat. Fill in the cross sections with whole cloves.
As soon as the ham is scored and cloved drizzle the sauce all over the ham, brush sauce onto the flesh where it has been missed. Arrange the pineapple slices over the cloves and fat layer and secure with tooth picks, two per slice. Now simply put the ham out of the way, cover with a tea towel and let it sit while you prepare the grill.
Weber Smoked Glazed Ham Equipment
- Weber 22.5″ Grill
- Weber Rapid Fire Chimney
- Kingsford Original Briquettes
- Maverick ET-73 Digital Thermometer
How to Smoke a Ham on a Weber Grill
Prepare your grill for medium heat indirect smoking with a temperature of 160°C. As the ham is already in a tray there is no need for a drip tray.
To ensure the ham is heated all the way though you want to allow 10 minutes per 500g at 160°C. Adjust your cooking time accordingly to the size of your ham. For my ham I cooked for one hour 40 minutes due to the fact that while my briquettes started at 160°C they slowly dropped to around 140°C during the cook.
I rotated the ham every 30 minutes to ensure an even spread of heat to either side of the ham. I also took this opportunity of having the lid off to brush the ham with the glaze that had pooled at the bottom of the tray. Make every last bit count.
A bit about the cooking time again, take this as a general guide and not a fixed set of rules. There will be many varying factors about how long it will take your ham such as outside temperature, size of the bone, what temperature the ham was before you started cooking – room temperature is best. You will be the best judge so adjust accordingly. To give you a good idea when it is ready to pull off the heat is when you can see the pineapple and fat start to blacken as pictured below.
When the ham is cooked and heated through and removed from the grill move to a chopping board and discard the tooth picks and cloves. Save the pineapple for your guests as it will be deliciously smoked and perfect to serve alongside the ham. Carve the ham in slices until the bone is in the way before resorting to carving out chunks of ham.
Boiled potatoes and grilled asparagus are some favourites to serve alongside a smoked glazed ham. Oh, don’t forget the fresh bread rolls either!