Easy tips and steps with everything you've ever wanted to know about how to cook a ham in the oven. Baked spiral ham recipe with a simple glaze.
Every Christmas and Easter, we bake a ham, whether we're having company or not. And sometimes through the year, if prices are cheap enough, we'll bake a whole ham and cut it up for lunchmeat that week.
I absolutely love a good ham. It's always a treat, especially when we serve it with ham gravy (or ham gravy with cornstarch), mashed potatoes, green beans, and Grandma's homemade dinner rolls.
Mmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
While it's fairly easy to make a baked ham, there are lots of things to think about when you're baking a ham in the oven. Things like how to keep it moist, how long do you cook a ham, and on and on.
Hopefully, I'll be able to answer all of your burning questions about how to cook a pre-cooked ham. But if you don't find the answer to your questions, leave me a comment (I check them every week day), and I'll reply back to you.
If you love ham as much as I do, you'll love my pineapple ham too.
WHERE CAN I FIND THE ACTUAL RECIPE CARD?
If you’d rather skip all of my recipe tips, important info for this recipe, and similar recipe ideas – and get straight to the actual ham recipe – just scroll down to the bottom, where you’ll find a printable recipe card with a longer how to video.
INGREDIENTS YOU'LL NEED:
- A pre-cooked ham – My ham is a 10-pound spiral cut ham.
- Glaze packet – It usually comes with the ham, and you'll find it in the packaging.
- Water
Remember, all of the ingredient amounts you’ll need are in the printable recipe card below.
KITCHEN TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT YOU'LL NEED:
Small Saucepan – for making the glaze.
Basting Brush – You'll need this to brush the glaze on the ham.
HOW TO COOK A HAM IN THE OVEN
Baking a fully cooked ham is a pretty straightforward, simple, and easy process. And usually, your package will have all the instructions you need.
Before you get started, be sure to preheat the oven to 250° F.
- Remove the ham from its packaging, and place it face down in the roasting pan. Important Tip: If your package has any juices in it, pour them into the bottom of the pan, along with about a cup of water; this will help your ham to stay more moist.
- Cover the ham tightly with foil (all of it but the bottom, so the juices can run out into the pan, and so juices can steam into the ham, keeping it more moist). Then bake the ham according to the instructions in the recipe card below (or according to your package instructions). Usually, you'll bake it for 12 to 15 minutes per pound. So a 10-pound ham will bake for about 120+ minutes.
- About 45 minutes before the end of your bake time, empty the glaze packet into a small saucepan, along with the water.
- Bring your glaze to a boil over high heat while stirring constantly.
- At this point, you'll need to remove the glaze from the heat. And about 1/2 hour before end of cook time, remove your ham from the oven, take off the foil, and apply the glaze all over the outside of the ham with a basting brush. Then bake it, glazed and uncovered, for another 30 minutes or so.
- When the ham is done, you can bring it out of the oven, let it cool just a bit, and slice it for serving.
HOW LONG IT TAKES TO COOK A PRECOOKED HAM
Let's talk about cooking time and internal temperature for a minute.
Always be sure to look at the packaging instructions for your specific ham, and follow what it says for cook time.
This spiral ham came from Aldi, and it said 12 to 15 minutes per pound. So being a 10-pound ham, it needed to cook for about 2 hours (120 minutes) or more, but not too long or it'll dry out.
An 8-pound ham would take about 96+ minutes to bake. A 12-pound ham, 144+ minutes. And so on and so forth.
According to the USDA, spiral-cut cooked hams that were packaged in processing plants under USDA inspection must be heated to 140 °F as measured with a food thermometer (165 °F for leftover spiral-cut hams or ham that has been repackaged in any other location outside the plant). Cook-before-eating hams or fresh hams must reach 145 °F (with a 3-minute rest time) to be safely cooked before serving. Read more of their Ham and Food Safety instructions.
WAYS TO KEEP A SPIRAL HAM FROM DRYING OUT
There are a few specific steps you can take to keep a fully cooked ham from drying out while it's baking…
- Like I mentioned above, save ham juices from packaging, and pour them into the bottom of the pan; this will help your ham to stay moist.
- You can put a little less than a cup of water or some kind of stock/broth in the bottom of the pan before baking if you want. This will also add moisture.
- Covering your ham with foil helps it to retain moisture, as well. Of course, you can also bake it in a roasting bag.
CAN YOU FREEZE PRE-COOKED HAM?
Yes, you can freeze a pre-cooked ham.
I suggest cutting your ham up into smaller portions and freezing it in airtight containers or freezer bags with aluminum foil; that way it's easier to get those smaller portions out and re-heat them.
When it's time to re-heat, just make sure you have plenty of time for thawing, especially if you're thawing a big, huge ham.
Keep in mind, according to the USDA, you can store a spiral-cut ham or ham leftovers in the fridge for about 3 to 5 days; and you can freeze them for about 1 to 2 months.
WHAT TO DO WITH A HAM HOCK
Don't just throw away that ham hock or bone. Repurpose and make something delicious.
15-bean soup with rice is a great way to use a ham bone and make something comforting. My mom and grandma always used ham hock to make a big pot of pinto beans, and we'd eat it with cornbread.
WHAT TO DO WITH HAM LEFTOVERS
Here are a few ideas for what to do with all that leftover ham.
- Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
- Ham Crescent Rolls
- Air Fryer Ham and Cheese Sandwiches
- Cheesy Ham Frittata
- Ham Chowder
- Homemade Egg McMuffin
- Ham and Cheese Egg Muffins
- Slow Cooker Ham Soup
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How to Cook a Ham in the Oven
Equipment
- Roasting Pan
- Meat Thermometer
- Basting Brush
Ingredients
- 1 spiral cut or half bone-in ham w/ ham juices
- 1 cup water
- 1 glaze packet
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250° F.
- Remove the ham from its packaging, and place it face down in the roasting pan.
- If your package has any juices in it, pour them into the bottom of the pan, along with about 1 cup of water; this will help your ham to stay more moist.
- Cover the ham tightly with foil (all of it but the bottom, so the juices can run out into the pan).
- Bake the ham according to the instructions in your packaging; usually, it will require you to bake it for 12 to 15 minutes per pound. So a 10-pound ham will bake for about 120+ minutes.
- About 45 minutes before the end of your bake time, empty the glaze packet into a small saucepan, along with 2 tablespoons water.
- Bring the glaze to a boil over high heat while stirring constantly.
- Remove the glaze from the heat. About 1/2 hour before end of cook time, remove the ham from the oven, take off the foil, and apply the glaze all over the outside of the ham with a basting brush.
- Finish baking the ham, glazed and uncovered, for another 30 minutes or so.
- When the ham is done, you can bring it out of the oven, let it cool just a bit, and slice it for serving.
Notes
- Like I mentioned above, save the ham juices from the packaging, and pour them into the bottom of the pan; this will help your ham to stay moist.
- You can put a little less than a cup of water or some kind of stock/broth in the bottom of the pan before baking if you want. This will also add moisture.
- Covering your ham with foil helps it to retain moisture, as well. Of course, you can also bake it in a roasting bag.
We put our 12 lb ham in the oven, prepped like you recommended, preheated to 250°. After 2 hours, we checked the internal temp and it was about 70°. The same instructions were on the wrapping from the ham. So we put the ham back in and raised the temp to 325° and are trying another hour.
Since I do the cooking (Mt wife can’t see and had a stroke) and I am learning all sorts of recipes. This seems simple enough for us men that has to take over the duty! I remember my mom used to put cloves on the top with the glaze. What do you think? THANK YOU!
Paul, I am so glad to hear that this was helpful to you. I think putting cloves on top of the glaze sounds like a great idea! Thank You for the awesome feedback.
This was very helpful. I do our ham the same way every Easter. I couldn’t remember every step but your page made it so easy. Also gave me Alot more ideas to try. Our Ham Turned Out Awesome & Not Dry. Thank you…Now My Grandma Always Made Split Pea Soup From Our Ham Bone. For my husband we would give her the bone & he would get the soup days later. He misses her soup since she passed in 2010. So now I just have to figure out how to make the soup (2022)Tired of hearing him say every year God do I miss my split pea soup & wish we could find someone to make it like she did. So wish me luck. Lol Please Try The Add on’s to baking your Ham. You will love them.
I’m so glad you liked the recipe, Tracy! Thanks for the awesome feedback.
Adding a little milk to the “left over” soup helps it taste so yummy the next day. Pro Tip ♥️
Thank You for the tip, Nicole!
What a great recipe thank you so very much
My ham says to cook at 325° for roughly the same time you have listed. But you’re saying you think 250° is a better temp to cook ham at?
It is fine to cook it at a higher temperature, and many people do. We simply prefer the taste and texture of a ham cooked at a lower heat for more time. As always, be sure that it has reached an internal temperature of at least 145°F. Sometimes a higher temperature is necessary.
Great easy recipe,, thank you
Thanks so much, Kimberly!
I made this Ham for Easter dinner today. It was great, that’s the first Ham I’ve made that wasn’t hard and dry.
That’s awesome, Tom! I’m so glad it turned out well for you.
I am planning on making this ham and serving with a Hashbrown Casserole. If I cook the ham first at 250…. can I take it from the oven, cover it and put in my warming oven at low till the casserole cooks for an hour at 350? I don’t want to dry out the ham. Maybe I should cook the casserole first and leave that in the warming oven… please help!
I would personally choose to cook the casserole first. It is too easy to dry out a ham. Ham goes very well with hash brown casserole!
How do you make the ham gravy?
You can find that recipe here, Thomas.
Thank you for all of this information. I baked a 3 lb. ham and it was wonderful. I do have a question, though – the glaze packet didn’t come with any instructions and I didn’t know how much water to add, or how long to boil it. I added too much water and ended up boiling it so long that some of it was hard and unable to be spread on the ham. Your pictures are beautiful, but please add info on the glaze packet.
Thanks!