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Glazing a ham on the trusty Weber kettle at Christmas time is one of my oldest barbecue memories. Being a boring white guy I don’t have a great deal of food traditions passed down the generations, but cooking on the Weber at Christmas is, and will continue to be, one of them.
This recipe is a twist on our rib glaze with a whole lot of Christmas cheer added in (bourbon)
The amounts below make quite a lot of ham glaze as sugar is cheap and it means you can really build those layers.
If you don’t have a Weber kettle you could do this in any other barbecue or oven.
Combine all elements apart from the bourbon into a saucepan, bring to a boil and ensure all sugars are dissolved. Pour in bourbon as it is coming off the boil. I add the bourbon in at the end because I don’t want the alcohol to boil off, it helps keep that festive kick.
You can adjust the recipe to suit your needs: less spicy, less boozy etc if family requirements call for it. Try not to stray too far from the sugar to liquid ratios as it may lose or gain too much viscosity and become hard to work with.
On cooking with alcohol: this goes for pretty much all of my cooking with alcohol – I like to use something that is of reasonable quality but you are simply not going to gain anything by cooking with particularly expensive alcohol. Drink the good stuff!
You could also sub in other alcohols – I don’t see why you couldn’t take this recipe, get a little bit Sunny in Philadelphia and turn it into a Rum Ham.
As we tend to spend the day celebrating and spending time together around the house on Christmas Day there is ample time for tending to the barbecue which means plenty of time for applying layer upon layer of glaze (each layer brings a little more Christmas cheer)
Set up your Weber kettle or other barbecue for low heat, I aim for around 250f / 120c but anywhere from 225 – 300f would be fine.
Take the skin off your ham, if itsn’t already, then score the fat to help the glaze stick in all those delicious little crevices. You can keep the skin to put back over the ham when it’s in the fridge, but it’s otherwise not needed.
Use Marge Simpson for inspiration on this cook.
I apply continual layers of glaze generally across a period of about 3-4 hours but there is no right or wrong here. The first layer of glaze acts a little like an undercoat and helps the next layers stick. Keep an eye on it, if your barbecue is too hot the sugars may start to burn – darkening as the sugars caramelise is fine but burnt no good.
You want to get your ham up to an internal temperature of 60c – from here you could chill back down or serve hot.
Enjoy and don’t forget to put up pictures of your hams and other Christmas cooks on our Perth BBQ Club facebook group or tag us on social media.
