How to glaze a ham for Christmas

The secret to a great ham glaze is to keep it sweet, but balance that sweetness with a little bit of sour and savoury. It may seem strange, but just a touch of fish sauce makes a world of difference and your guests will never even know it's there.

Adam Liaw's orange and pomegranate glazed ham

1 whole ham leg (6-10kg)

30 whole cloves

Orange and pomegranate glaze

½ cup pomegranate molasses

juice and rind of 1 orange

½ cup honey

¼ cup castor sugar

2 tablespoon fish sauce

Method

1. Combine all the ingredients for the glaze in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for five minutes until the glaze is thick.

2. Heat your oven to 180C. Stud the surface of the ham with the cloves in a cross-hatched pattern (I prefer the cloves in the centre of each square, instead of at the joins) and score the surface of the ham in between the cloves. Placing the cloves first makes it much easier to see where to score the ham.

3. Place the ham on a baking dish and brush with the glaze. Brush every 15 minutes for one and a half hours, or until the ham is warmed through, shiny and caramelised.

Serves 10-15

Other ways to glam up your ham:

• Karen Martini's baked ham with spiced Guinness, mustard and marmalade glaze
  
• Stephanie Alexander's ham glaze
  
• Caroline Velik's soy and citrus glazed baked ham