This Cherry Rum Glazed Ham will be a beautiful centerpiece for your Christmas dinner! It’s easy and delicious! A crowd-pleaser for your guests! I mean who doesn’t love cherries anyway!
Can you believe that Christmas is this week? I’m not quite sure where this year went and I am not sure why the years are just flying by so quickly. All I do know though is that my past year was filled with tons of travel and experiencing so many new and exciting things. It was a year filled with great joy for which I am forever grateful.
Central Queensland, Australia
So part of my travels this year took me to Australia. I had never been to this part of the world before and when the opportunity presented itself to go, I jumped on it! My favorite person lives in this part of the world so going there to see where he lives was a thrill. It was so much fun to experience all the sights, the sounds (yes sounds! the birds down there are very entertaining), the tastes, the beauty of being on the ocean, the incredible sunsets and seeing the Southern Cross. All of it was amazing and I find myself quite lucky to have experienced it all.
Food Down Under
This being said, I’d be amiss if I didn’t talk about the food and the inspiration for this week’s post! I will say that the food down under was very good but the tropical fruit was my favorite! In fact, it quite possibly ruined it for me when it comes to eating it here! From the rough-skinned pineapples (small and incredibly sweet) to the slipper bananas (also tiny and sweet) to the gorgeous pawpaws (papaya) to the soft and juicy mangos (I never liked mangos before I ate them here), it was all a new and delicious.
We also ate fresh seafood and fish that we caught from the reef. I’m not sure that I have ever eaten fish that was caught an hour before cooking it up! It was very windy so the BBQ was out of the question in the evenings, so I opted for cooking the fish in butter, wine, lemon, and garlic. It was fun to taste a variety of fish. I’m just happy that all of them were firm and white!
Australian Rum
In Australia, sugar cane is a huge crop, like 35m tons per year huge which makes Australia is the 2nd largest exporter of raw sugar in the world. As you can imagine, this is very important to the economy and the industry employs a huge amount of people.
The thing about sugar cane, when you grow it, you, in turn, produce some of the finest rum in the world! Bundaberg Rum (or Bundy as it’s called in Australia) is the most famous of the rums produced there. It’s a darker rum with a rich and bold taste that is very smooth to drink! I’m not a “rum” drinker, but I like this rum a lot. It was so good, that I decided that it would be the star in this week’s recipe!
Cherry Rum Glazed Ham
Two flavors that just work together are cherries and rum. I decided that I would make a ham for Christmas with this delicious concoction. The great thing about this glaze is that it slowly simmers and the cherries take on a subtle rum flavor. It’s a semi-sweet sauce that perfectly compliments the savory ham. Feel free to pick the size ham that suits your needs as there is plenty of the glaze. If you are making a larger ham to serve more people, feel free to add more cherries to the sauce it won’t change anything, just extra cherries which you will want!
Enjoy this recipe, it’s so good that I’m making it twice! 🙂
The beauty of this cherry rum glaze is that it is enough for just about any sized ham that you choose! If you make a bigger ham, you may want to add another bag of frozen cherries! There is plenty of glaze for that and they sure are good!
To me, baked ham is one of the easiest meals for the holidays! In about an hour or so, you can have a beautiful centerpiece to impress your family and friends! It’s darn delicious too!
Are you looking for other Christmas dinner ideas? Try these!
Oh! Here is one other rum recipe… I just had to include it!
Merry Christmas to all! Enjoy the view and the holiday!
One of the most incredible things that we saw on our trip was the beautiful sunsets! This one did not disappoint! It was just gorgeous!
Cherry Rum Glazed Ham
Ingredients
For the Cherry Rum Glaze
- 1 cup cherry preserves
- 1/4 cup dark rum
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 2 cups frozen dark pitted cherries add more if making a larger ham
- 1 cup soda (Coke or Pepsi)
- 1 orange, zested and juiced
- 2 teaspoons allspice
Ham
- 1 6-8 pound ham, choose your cut
Instructions
For the Cherry Rum Glaze
- In a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, add the preserves, rum, sugar, mustard, cherries, soda, allspice, orange juice, and zest. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the glaze begins to reduce and thickens. Remove from heat and set aside.
To make the Ham
- Score the ham with a sharp paring knife in a criss-cross pattern. Brush on the glaze making sure that you get into all the slits. At this point, don't put the cherries on, just brush with the glaze.
- Place the ham in a large baking dish and place it in a 350-degree oven. Brush the ham every 20 minutes or so. Bake for 1 hour or until the internal temp reaches 145 degrees. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
- In the meantime, heat the remaining glaze with the cherries. Serve the ham with the extra glaze and cherries.