I know nothing about baking a ham, so I googled it and found some good info. on allrecipes.com.

Seems there are different grades of ham, and the bone-in usually hold more flavor, so they are usually more expensive.

But from what I can tell, most ham recipes require a good basting liquid.

Do any of you have any good recipes for that, or other pointers for making a good ham?

I make a glaze out of melted butter,brown sugar ,cinnamon ,clove powder and ginger.I also crisscross cut the skin and add whole cloves in each joint of the cuts !delicious !Bone in ham is the best .Make soup out of the bone and trimmings

If you have a smoker, a good trick is to buy a bone in, spiral sliced ham and baste with a mix of

1/2 cup honey
1 cup orange juice
1 TBS whole cloves
2 TBS crushed chopped garlic

Some people don't like to cook spiral sliced hams due to the theory that the cuts allow the moisture to escape and make the ham dry. However, if you are basting the ham with liquid it can't dry out and the slices allow the baste to enter the ham deeply and flavor the meat.

This method works at different levels too!

You can cook it longer for a deeper smoke flavor and caramelization of the honey (sugar) for a more intense flavor but will dry the ham somewhat.

Cook it till just warm throughout for maximum moistness.


Cook it somewhere in the middle for extra smokey flavor.

You can do the same thing to an unsliced ham but the baste won't penetrate the meat much.

Sometimes I add pineapple juice to the baste instead of orange.

I do something similar but mostly I pour brown sugar and syrup over it then juice from a can of pineapples, then stick whole cloves all around in it, then bake with aluminum foil on it for a few hours, checking and using the turkey baster to keep it putting the juices back over it.. The last hour or so I take the foil off and add the whole slices of pineapple and baste a few more times... everyone loves my ham..

Yep I forgot about the pineapple rings and juice .I love it .

Ya' need to find you a hog with big haunches.
Oh, I see you want a simpler recipe.

Go to the Honey Baked Ham store. Nothing better...

I'm not real big on cloves. I do like a sweet glaze on it though. Mostly just throw in either a little coke or a beer and cook. I have learned the key is not to overcook it.

Oh it's the combination that works Heather !And no honeybaked spirals either nothing like homemade !