Perfect Oven-Baked Spiral Ham (How Long to Cook)

Perfect oven-baked spiral ham recipes are just what you need during the holiday season! Learn how long it takes to cook a big ham, and how to glaze it!

If you’ve picked up a bone-in ham from your grocery store, and you’re wondering how long to cook this fresh ham, this post has you covered!

You’ll learn how to bake the perfect spiral cut ham, and what you can glaze it with. 

Christmas dinner and Thanksgiving aren’t complete without a big Brown Sugar Glazed Ham, and this post will have you mastering the best way to make this.

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Perfect Oven-Baked Spiral Ham

​First, let’s chat about the type of ham you might have purchased at the store.

You have the traditional Spiral-Cut, Bone-in Ham. This is the one that usually comes in a colorful foil wrapper, and has a glaze you mix up and heat. These are typically pre-cooked hams, and you need to reheat them. Buying a pre-cooked ham is the way to go, y’all!

A half ham is just half of the whole ham. Then, when they cut it, it becomes spiral-cut ham! 

You might find a ham labeled “City Hams” and those are injected with moisture so they don’t dry out. 

Country Ham is cured ham, that is super salty. It’s great for making red-eye gravy, collard greens, or even the start of shrimp and grits.

​You can find uncooked hams or fresh hams. These have not been cured, and they are not in the precooked ham category. 

​Boneless hams are also available uncut, or sliced. These are great if you’re hosting a sandwich bar, and need some hearty ham slices.

How Long to Cook a Ham?

If you’re wondering how long to cook your 10 lb ham, you’ll need 10-15 minutes per pound. So, to err on the side of fully cooked, heated 10 pound ham, cooking at 15 minutes per pound would take a 2.5-hour cook time. This is using 350 degrees as your oven temperature.

Why err on the side of the longer cook time? If you’re putting your fully cooked ham from the fridge, putting it in the oven, that ham is super cold from the inside out.

You want to be sure every person getting a slice of ham has a HOT slice of ham! 

For a boneless ham, you can definitely use the 10 minutes per pound time, with a 350-degree oven temperature. 

​This cook time is for precooked hams. If you’re cooking your ham from fresh, that’s a whole different thing. 

Hams are usually smoked first, and then roasted in the oven. Like bacon! Swine if fine, baby! Smoked ham is delicious, and such a great way to feed a crowd.

How to Cook a Juicy Ham

Every Southern cook has their own cooking method for ham. I’m sharing mine with you, so use what you want, leave the rest!

For this recipe tutorial, I’ll be using a 10 pound spiral ham, that’s precooked. 

If you’ve bought an unsliced ham, give the ham a diamond pattern score, using a sharp knife. This gives the glaze a place to nestle, and somewhere for the basting juices to really moisten the ham. 

Once your ham is scored, follow the rest of the step-by-step instructions.

A spiral-sliced ham needs the packaging removed and plopped into a roasting pan with about 3/4-1 cup of water in the bottom.

​After your ham is in the roasting pan, with a little water on the bottom, you’ll want to cover it tightly as best you can with aluminum foil.

No need for any extra juices, glazes, etc right now. Once it gets heated through, we’ll start that process.

​Place your ham in a COLD oven. Yes, you read that right! A cold oven. Then, turn the oven to 350 degrees Farehieht. 

Once your ham has been cooking for an hour, and lots of juices have formed, you can use a Turkey Baster, and begin squeezing the liquid over the ham.

You’ll uncover the ham, pull up some juice in your baster, and then just run it all over the ham. Do this for the last hour, every 15-20 minutes.

The ham should cook until an internal temperature of 145 degrees is reached with a meat thermometer. This is a safe internal temperature to know your ham is not only fully cooked but it’s fully heated through.

When you have 15 minutes left in your cooking time, you can start the glaze.

Glazing a Ham

I have a very popular Brown Sugar Glazed Ham recipe, that is so easy. It’s very similar to a Honeybaked Ham, without the down payment on a car.

It’s a simple mix of brown sugar, orange juice, and a little mustard. You heat all of that up in a small saucepan and use a basting brush to paint the glaze on.

​Since it’s a sugary glaze it can burn very quickly, so you have to keep an eye on it. But, brushing the glaze a few times in the last 10-15 minutes of cooking is sufficient. 

The brown sugar glaze caramelizes the ham and creates this almost crispy crust that breaks when you bite into it. 

You can also use a Coca-Cola Glaze for your ham. It’s a Southern specialty! You boil down a little bottle of coke and add in a few other ingredients.

It creates a deep, dark-colored glaze and is the star of the show with collard greens and macaroni and cheese! 

Other glaze recipes include apple cider, maple syrup, etc.

This Honey Glazed Ham with Pineapple might bring back a few nostalgic memories!

Serving a Holiday Ham

If you’re serving your ham for the Holidays, here’s a full Ham Dinner Menu idea list for you!

I love serving Brown Butter Rice and green beans with my ham.

​Growing up, my grandmother always made a big ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and salad for dinner.

Your baked ham feeds a crowd! Especially a 10-pound ham!

If you have any leftovers you can cut the slices off and store them in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Don’t forget to save that ham bone!

Use it to make Southern Pinto Beans and Ham, one of my absolute favorite meals of all time! It might be WHY I even make ham, so I can have a heaping bowl of beans and cornbread the next day.

Of course, Split Pea Soup with Leftover Ham is always a winner in my book!

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