Orange-Glazed Ham

Week 324. Summer 2022. I am 39 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like grilled food and garden herbs and this is my life. This is the life I built.

The clinic was busy this week — spring puppies and summer emergencies and the constant, comforting cycle of animals who need care and humans who love them enough to bring them in.

Mason is 11 and reading everything he can find and examining the world under a microscope with the intensity of a tenured researcher.

Lily is 9 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made barbecue ribs this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

Barbecue ribs were what actually went on the grill that week, but it’s this Orange-Glazed Ham — sticky and sweet and filling the house with something that smells like celebration — that I keep coming back to when I want to mark a moment worth remembering. Week 324 deserved exactly that: something that takes a little time, something that makes the kitchen smell like a place people want to be, something I could set on the outdoor table under the string lights and watch Mason and Lily reach for before I even sat down. This one’s for all the ordinary weeks that are anything but.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 2 hours | Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes | Servings: 10

Ingredients

1 fully cooked bone-in ham (6–8 lbs)
1 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Whole cloves for studding (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 325°F. Place ham cut-side down in a large roasting pan and score the surface in a diamond pattern, cutting about 1/4 inch deep.
Make the glaze. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine orange juice, marmalade, brown sugar, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, ground cloves, cinnamon, and black pepper. Stir and simmer for 8–10 minutes until slightly thickened.
Stud and glaze. If using whole cloves, press one into each diamond intersection on the ham. Brush a generous layer of glaze over the entire surface.
Roast. Cover loosely with foil and roast for 1 hour 30 minutes, basting with pan juices and additional glaze every 30 minutes.
Caramelize. Remove foil for the final 30 minutes of cooking and apply a final coat of glaze. Roast uncovered until the surface is caramelized and a meat thermometer reads 140°F in the thickest part.
Rest and serve. Remove from oven and let rest 15 minutes before slicing. Spoon any remaining pan glaze over slices when serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Orange-Glazed Ham — The Food That Connects Every Version of Me