How to Cook the Perfect Holiday Ham

The holiday ham is a main center piece on many dinner tables around Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. There are several ways to cook a ham along with many different types of hams. Here are a few tips on how to cook the perfect holiday ham.

First off you should determine what type of ham that you would like to cook. You have the precooked sliced hams that are easily found at your local grocery store. These ready-to-eat versions are good to eat right out of the package but are even better when they are heated in your oven. Then there are the partially cooked hams. These hams MUST be cooked all the way through before eating them. The most common ham is the uncooked ham. This one takes the longest to cook and it's usually the one most commonly found on holiday dinner tables. There are also canned hams, spiral hams and boneless hams. For the canned hams and the ready-to-eat hams you just need to follow the directions on the packaging for cooking them correctly. For this article I will be talking about how to cook an uncooked ham.

First off, we'll start with thawing techniques for your holiday ham. The safest and most recommended way to thaw a ham is also the slowest, the refigerator. Leave the ham in it's original wrapper and place it in the fridge. I like to place a towel under the ham so that there won't be any liquids leaking out all over my refrigerator. For a small ham the general rule of thumb is to thaw for 4 to 5 hours per pound and 5 to 7 hours per pound for a large ham. When thawing in the refrigerator you can leave the ham in the fridge for up to 3 to 5 days before it requires cooking.