When the holidays come around, ham is often a staple at the dinner table. Be it a lovely Easter Dinner, an alternative to turkey at Thanksgiving, or at a serene Christmas dinner, ham is a beloved food by many people. But cooking it can be complicated. If you’re wondering how long to cook the ham you bought, you’ve come to the right place. I love to cook ham in the oven. The cooking time for ham and oven temp are key for a good result. The temperature I like to use is 350 degrees Fahrenheit. So how long to cook a ham at 350 degrees in the oven? Let’s cover this in this guide and other tips for baking ham in oven.
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350 degrees F is considered the universal baking temperature. Almost anything can be cooked using this temperature, including your ham! The main thing to remember when cooking a delicious, juicy ham is that you need to cook ham at 350 degrees for 10 minutes per pound. Most hams vary in weight, so there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. But the formula given here will get your ham cooked deliciously in no time.
If you have a 7-pound ham, you should cook it for an hour and 10 minutes at 350 degrees. For a 10-pound ham, cook it for an hour and 40 minutes. Remember, a ham needs to reach an internal temperature of 120 degrees to 140 degrees. You can test this by using a meat thermometer. Also don’t leave it in the oven for more than two hours after baking is done, or it will dry out! Nobody wants a dry ham at Easter, that’s for sure.
If you want to slow cook your ham, you can bake the ham at 275 degrees, for 20 minutes per pound. Slow cooking ham at 275 degrees should take between two and three hours, but no more, or else you might dry out the ham! Using this method, a 7-pound ham will bake for 2 hours and 20 minutes, while a 10-pound ham should only be in the oven for 3 hours.
You don’t even technically need to heat up your ham. Nearly all hams are sold already cured and cooked, meaning they are safe to eat if you keep them cold. If it reaches room temperature, it can start to grow bacteria, so you’ll want to either keep your ham on ice or warm while serving it.
It depends on how quickly you need your ham reheated, and how large the ham is! A larger ham is best cooked at 350 degrees, while 275 degrees works perfectly on smaller hams. While cooking at a higher temperature might make the process go by faster, there is the risk of accidentally overcooking your dish. Be sure to watch it closely and take its temperature with a meat thermometer often to avoid this!
Ham is a very simple dish to prepare! I’m very glad about that, as the holidays are usually very hectic, with family and children running around, so an easy dinnertime centerpiece dish is all I could ever ask for! The internet has lots of recipes for ham baked in oven. However, I like to stick to this one easy ham recipe. And here’s how to cook ham in the oven.
Preheat the oven to your desired temperature.
Add 3/4 cup of water to the roasting pan, or as much as you need, and place any spices you’d like in the water.
Place ham on the rack of your roasting pan and slice as desired. Usually, you cut slashes to make a criss-cross pattern. This helps the ham cook evenly. These slices should be 1/4-inches deep!
Simply place the roasting rack in the oven and cook based on your ham’s weight! If you want to add a glaze to your ham, brush it over the ham once every 20 minutes.
Speeding up cooking can be a dangerous game, but as long as your ham reaches 140 degrees internally, you’re fine to cook and serve it however you please. By having a glaze already made and your spices already measured out, you can reduce prep time significantly. If you want a quicker cooking time, also consider buying a smaller ham to serve. You might have fewer leftovers, and you might save a lot of time too!
Ham is, thankfully, an easy dish to dress up and make absolutely delicious.
By inserting whole cloves into the intersections of the cuts you’ve made, you can add some great spice to your dish. (Remember to discard them before serving!) Adding Star Anise to the water is also a great way to bring out the natural flavors of the ham.
You can also pour a beer on the ham to give it a sweeter, richer flavor. Don’t worry – the alcohol cooks off during the baking!
And then there’s the classic pineapple glaze, which you can make by mixing pineapple juice with brown sugar.
Ham will be more complete with side dishes that allow it to shine even more. Some side dishes for ham include mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes and egg casserole.
When it comes to side dishes for ham, vegetables will always fit the bill. Whether you serve them fresh, roasted, steamed or pickled, they will put the steak in the best light possible. Some veges include roasted asparagus, baked broccoli and spinach.
Another side that goes well with ham is shredded brussel sprouts. The savoriness and richness of ham goes well with the garden freshness and mildness of sprouts.
All of these tips and tricks will make sure your holiday dinners amaze your family and guests! Your ham will not only be cooked properly, but by using our tips, you can make even a cheap ham taste expensive and delicious!
The ham cooked temp is around 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit when done. Make sure the ham internal temperature is taken at the thickest part of the ham since heat will take a longer time to penetrate the thicker meat.
I like to portion 0.75 pound of ham per person in a serving. This is for bone-in ham. For boneless ham, I will portion 0.5 pound of ham per person. My family find this portion quite filling, especially when I have 2 to 3 side dishes to go with the ham. But if I’m preparing a feast for a large group, I would have an extra buffer of 1.5 pounds for every 10 people. That’s to say I would have 9 pounds of ham for 10 people. The reason for having a buffer is that chances that I would have someone with a large appetite for ham increases.
The ham comes from the hind legs on the pig. This part of meat has large muscles and little connective tissues. So it’s easier to cook than the other parts of the pig like the pork shoulder or pork butt.