Arkansas_girl, putting cold meat in the oven is working uphill. With something large, like a ham or turkey, set it on the counter for an hour before putting it in the oven.

I've reheated following the same instructions you did and it was great, so not sure what else to advise except making sure the ham is wrapped up really well.

If you allow for enough time, Dcarch's method will insure a moist result. It's worth a try when the instructions aren't working for you.

l was thinking that maybe I should leave it out to warm up some first. I do that with roasts and of course steaks all the time. I used a huge sheet of wide heavy duty Reynold's foil and completely wrapped it up.

Posted by arkansas_girl ," dcarch, I was following the heating directions that came with the ham."

There are a few rules which we must deal with in cooking:

1. Water boils at 212F. Until all the water has evaporated, temperature cannot get any higher. whether you are roasting at 212F or at 325F or 500F, the meat will always be at no higher than 212F.

2. When meat gets higher than 212F, all the water is gone, and you will get very dry meat.

3. Thermal conductivity is a constant. The speed of heat travel in a given material is a physical property and cannot be changed. The speed of heat from the exterior of the meat traveling to the interior cannot be change, it is a function of distance (thickness) not weight.

4. Use low heat, give heat the time it needs to get to the interior, and you will get nice hot moist meat.

dcarch

I'll give you their 800 number and you can call them and explain to them why they need to change their heating instructions...how's that? HAHA!

Next time I have an entire day to heat a ham, I'll heat it at 165, probably won't take more than 10 hours...lol!

I think I'll put it in the crock pot before I go to bed then next time I want ham. Only other answer I believe would be to just cut off what I want and warm it and not even bother putting the ham in the oven.

No need to be snide, Arkansas Girl.
For what it's worth, I always glaze my ham, baste it with juice and it's never dry and doesn't take 10 hours.
I doubt that it would take that long using D Carch's method either.

colleen, I don't see what your method is here. What's your temperature etc etc. Do you heat it at 165 as dcarch suggests is the proper temperature to heat a ham? I would think the ham would spoil before it would get to proper temperature at warming on 165. Apparently the companies that sell hams have no idea the proper way to heat a ham? Apparently when searching the internet for proper heating directions (which I did) they also gave the same method given by ham company. Whoever heard of heating a ham at 165 degrees? You'd probably get food poisoning and be sick for a week! There are proper ways to heat things so that you don't get sick. I personally would not risk it. I do realize that dcarch fancies himself as a food scientist and comes up with some unconventional methods of cooking things which I don't care to experiment with but others may find fun to try. Not trying to be "snide" just not wanting to end up in the hospital with food poisoning.

This post was edited by arkansas_girl on Thu, Dec 11, 14 at 7:12

"-------The last ham I got was an 11 lb spiral smoked fully cooked ham. ----"

I am no food safety scientist, if I understand this correctly, if it is a fully cooked ham i would assume it is already food-safe. Additional safety is added if it is smoked. Smoking preserves food. Salt in ham add even more safety margin.

If I remember correctly, 160F is food safe, so 165F gives you added margin. If you put the ham inside a preheated oven, the surface will be at 165F within minutes. Based on the full USDA food safety chart, temperature and food safety is time dependent. In other words, at much lower temperature, given enough time, the food will be sanitized just the same.

dcarch

Well I'm not going to risk it because the temp inside that ham would be unsafe for too long of a time and would be spoiled if you ask me.

I agree. If you don't feel comfortable, then you shouldn't do it. Eating should make you feel good, not to make you feel worried.

That said, a fully cooked, smoked, salted ham is sterile inside.

dcarch

I'm with debbyga...I do mine in the crock pot now and it comes out moist and tender. It is too big to fit with the lid on, so I tent it with foil first so all the moisture drippings go back inside the pot, and then seal the top with another piece of foil. Comes out delish. Last Easter I fed 19 people on a ham and had none left over...it was that good.

If you're worried about food safety and want a moist ham, then why the heck are you buying a spiral sliced ham in the first place?

Think about it...all those thin slices are turning your ham into the equivalent of ham-burger and are exposing a gazillion more times the original surface area to hot air and germs. Trying to get a moist succulent morsel of ham, under those circumstances, is like trying to swim upstream. Yeh, maybe it can be done but WHY? when you can just walk upstream and float down?

I've eaten so many totally awful spiral sliced ham 'jerkies' prepared by otherwise good cooks that I've never been tempted to buy one of my own. Sure, it's a bit of a pain to slice a ham and, in my case, it's never pretty but I'm mostly concerned with how my ham tastes. (I should qualify this by saying that ham is one of my very favorites and I absolutely groan to see that a spiral ham is What's for Dinner.)

Anyhoo, if you insist on buying spiral cuts, next time maybe trying reheating it in one of those turkey 'cooking bags'. That should help to keep a lot of the moisture in and around the ham rather than letting it evaporate.

My point, arkansas girl, is that it would be sufficient to say, "I'm not sure about the logic of your method, d carch, I'm worried that it might not be hot enough to prevent food poisoning," without all the snide, "well why don't I give you the number of the ham company so you can set them straight" remarks. Actually, you continued with the snideness in your next post as well.

I've been around this place a long time and know that dcarch has a sense of humor...lol!

The last few times I cooked a large bone-in ham by simmering it in water with green beans and potatoes. Cooked for a couple hours and falling apart tender. I also saved some ham stock for soup.

I can be a ham sometimes.

dcarch :-)

This post was edited by dcarch on Thu, Dec 11, 14 at 12:40

Yep always "hamming" it up! HA!

I thought to look at the Honey Baked ham site and they actually say it's best to not reheat it because it will become dried out. I'll link their instructions below. It shouldn't be any different for a store bought ham other than it doesn't have all that honey flavor.

I honestly think that the way we like it, being warm, I'll just buy unsliced in the future and probably cook it as AnnieD mentioned. Maybe even on the stove top as Jasdip suggested. I can almost smell that cooking just thinking about it :)

Here is a link that might be useful: how to serve a spiral sliced honey baked ham

I feel horrible- I just bought a ham---I didn't find the spiral cut label until I got home- some had a big spiral cut label on the front-same brand-- Each time, I tried a spiral cut ham-it was ruined--then I see here-and I live over a mile high-so some of your comments are made for sea level--- I've covered them with foil- bagged them-tied them up-set them on end---my crock pot is smaller than the ham. It has the perfect shape- nicely coated in fat so I thought that I could make the perfect glaze with pineapple rings. If I weren't broke- I'd take it to a soup kitchen.

Spiral cut ham is fully cooked....you can eat it just aas it is....no need to heat it unless you like ti warm. And certainly no need to heat it to 160 degrees.
Wrap it well in foil and put it into a 250 oven just long enough to get it warm....leave it out on the counter for an hour and then probably an hour in the oven....depending on the size.
I have bacon-ey ham....so am very careful not to overf cook...in fact I prefer an uncooked ham...one that is just cured and needs to be cooked.

I just saw this old post I made. I'm with you Linda, I like the old style cured but not cooked hams and I'll be danged if I cannot find them where I live (Ohio). UGH! I suppose if I went to a meat market and paid top dollar for one I could find it. I'm used to buying them in the South, I would find smoked picnic hams for 99 cents a lb. they were always delicious.

Bought a spiral when I picked up our turkey, (what was I thinking?), but knowing the guest list could double as it has in the past... just needed a back-up protein. It is an easy one if I did need it. Always have plenty of sides for an army and left-over not cooked veg we eat in meals for a couple weeks so not a loss or waste.

We did not need it after all so we had it last weekend. I soak it over night, rinse, then into a fresh water bath with aromatics and simmer an hour. Rub with a spicy dry rub and into the oven for 20 min. Delicious and the soaking draws out the salt we don't like. White beans and collards. Made soup and froze chunks for egg and breakfast dishes.

NewYears day we always do a non-spiral but may pass this year. One ham is enough.

Like said, it is fully cooked,...I just don't want the heavy salt.

I always bring the spiral honey ham out of the fridge for at least an hour then heat @250 degrees until it is 140 degrees. The ham is fully cooked and it is not recommended to overheat it. You could eat it cold but it is nicer warm.

Thanks-This is bone-in--- It should have had the same labeling as the other spiral hams--- I so agree with Arkansas Girl--- I hate spiral hams--my family sent me to pick a good ham out--then I see the tiny small font spiral ham label- after I got home--not even bright-- I feel swindled --you do a photo search for spiral cut Hillshire Honey Glaze hams- and all the pics look like the normal spiral cut hams that were in the bins. I just feel tricked and cheated-- Then my family likes THICK slices----- We like a hot tender juicy ham- not hot shoe leather-They should label them as UNCUT-- NOT SLICED--or SPIRAL CUT SHOULD ALWAYS BE IN THE SAME PLACE ON THE LABEL--SAME FONT_ SAME COLOR---By the way-- Hillshire says 300 at 15 minutes a lb. That's almost 3 hours.

Should are correct re thickness of slices. Thicker slices are the best but I must admit to liking the ease of a spiral ham and the original Honey Ham is wonderful.

Sounds to me that it would be less fuss to cook a ham from raw. Who needs 11lbs of ham?

>>Who needs 11lbs of ham?<< I do :-)

I've ordered an 8kg ham, for Christmas lunch, to share with extended family and to have yummy ham meals for as long as I like before I portion out the rest and freeze it. Home baked ham is different to delicatessen ham.

What I've been doing since that one dried out ham is this; I've just sliced off what we wanted for our meal (it's just the two of us) and warm it in a skillet on the stove top with some water in the pan. This is working great for us, I realize that's not practical for a large gathering.

I think the best thing is make sure the oven isn't too hot and keep it covered so it doesn't dry out. Maybe even put some water in the pan. I don't care for a cold ham unless it's on a sandwich.

Ahnd remember...it doesn't need to be 140 all the way to the center....bring it out of the oven and let it rest and the temperature even out

This is the way I cook ham. Once I tried it a few years ago, we all declared it was wonderful. And, it left the oven free to cook other things. I have several crockpots and do like to use the AllClad for this. To my family spiral sliced hams are just too dry and pretty tasteless. I realize everyone has different palettes. And, please, keep any negative comments to yourselves about my method of cooking a ham.

Ham My Way

Put bone-in ham shank with only the water added to the ham by the factory, fat side up in a turkey roasting bag and add 2 cups water or other beverage of your choice. Do not
poke any holes nor add any flour to the roasting bag. Put the ham in the AllClad crockpot between 7a.m. and 8 a.m. and twist bag shut. Cover and seal crock with foil before putting on the lid. Turn crockpot on to low setting and start. Cook about 1 hour per pound of ham. Keep checking and determine for yourself when it is ready. When the ham is about
half-way done, turn it over inside the bag, twist top of bag shut, replace the foil, and lid and continue cooking on low. Cooked a 10 lb ham for 7 hours on low and it was falling off the bone, which is the way we like it. Not dry, but juicy and flavorful.

True ham comes from the leg of the pig; the butt end or shank end is cured, by wet curing in a brine solution, or dry curing, then smoked or cooked. The butt end has more meat and fat, and the shank end has sweeter meat. Hams are sold boneless or bone-in. Some people think that the bone-in hams have more flavor; the choice is up to you. Remember, these instructions are for reheating a fully cooked ham. An uncooked ham is a fresh ham and must be cooked to 160 degrees F before eating.

When a person cooks meat- any meat to its correct temperature-the meat should REST for about 20 minutes for the molecules to settle down inside the meat. That way, the meat continues residual cooking, the molecules stay put inside the meat, and a person can cut, without meat juices gushing all over, and the meat drying out from the juice loss. Spiral hams ARE CUT-so the juices rush out anyway-that's why the meat is so darn dry, even if you let it rest and no matter what you do to it..

Why did I buy a 11 pound ham? Because I wanted to and had the money. My opinion is that I should buy ham steaks- and just serve everyone a ham steak that was heated in the microwave. Or put ham steaks in a professional utility pan-because we have several professional cooks in the family- make a syrupy brown sugar- pineapple sauce, cover with foil--shiny side down-and heat-- lots quicker- less fuss and work-and hopefully I can read the label correctly- or more importantly the company will have a consistent label for idiots like me. I'm still thinking of taking it to Joy Junction- the local homeless shelter-

Meyati, I know what you mean about the spiral cut hams being hard to distinguish in the store. The labeling sucks. A fairly reliable tip-off is that the spiral cuts are usually pricier than the uncut hams. But you have to watch like a hawk. The hams are usually all in different bins in the same freezer area and get mixed up when customers start sorting through them or simply change their minds and dump the ham in the closest available bin.

I detest spiral cuts. Common sense tells you that as the ham is being cut, the juices start leaking out. By the time you get around to warming it up, you're starting with a slightly moist much too thin, too salty slices of shoe leather.

I like a thick slice of ham being a greedy carnivore.

Tried soaking an uncut ham to draw out salt. Soaked overnight. The next morning, the soak water wasn't the least bit salty. So, I did the simmer trick and that worked very good to draw out a lot of salt. The overnight soak could be omitted IMO. OTOH, the soak could be beneficial in ways not immediately obvious. I'll probably continue with soak and only omit it if I get in a time pinch with no time to plan/ prepare or simply forget it. Oh, I don't toss the simmer water; the ham 'broth' gets packaged in 1 qt. half n half paper cartons and goes into the freezer to use for cooking beans and in soups.

Islay, I would have no problems utilizing an 11 pound ham. First go for a big dinner early in the day. Then later in the day munching. DSI would grab some to take home for his workday lunches. DSII would use it in his omelets. The bone and some chunks would go to the freezer for pinto beans and ham. Anything else can go into scalloped potatoes & ham, macaroni & cheese & other creamy pasta dishes, used for seasoning in place of bacon in green beans, diced and floated on cheese soup/ broccoli cheese soup, diced as a salad topper, etc.

Most any old-school type cook with Southern United States roots has plenty of uses for ham. My mom was born and mostly raised in southern Missouri. I remember her talking about hog butchering time. This happened in the fall and several hogs got butchered. In the days of ice-boxes (i.e., little or no refrigeration & certainly no one had honking big 20 cu ft deep freezers), lots of the pig ended up going to the smoke-house to be cured with a myriad of ways to use cured meat being the result. I wish Mom was still with us for I could ask questions...don't know if they cooked any or the (uncured) meat and larded it for storage, canned it or made head cheese, etc.

All of the Hillshire hams were all the same price-- I saw a couple of unsliced hams-but they had real odd shapes. Last year we had a nice unsliced ham, but the shape had the family laughing-it was something for a comedy. So I fell in love with the shape and the nice fat covering.

This just had odd packaging-the Hillshire label. I think that it wasn't done at the main plant or something-- The spiral cut sticker wasn't on the main label. The paper meat tag had Ham-10.91 lbs- the price per pound-total price- My son is a disabled vet, and we make plates for those that live alone. My son is talking about a nice split pea and ham soup, but he bought a bag of Navy beans.

I'm thinking of some nice greens and cornbread with this. I'm hungry all ready

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Just thought I'd add this. I ordered a spiral sliced ham from Harrington's that arrived yesterday. The directions suggest that you NOT attempt to heat a spiral sliced ham but serve it at room temperature.

Happy Easter to you too. I've changed my ham cooking too for a spiral cut. I decided to cover mine with a foil tent- dull side up to reduce the heat. I cooked mine almost for the length-then pulled it out and glazed it. I use pineapple juice and brown sugar-and pin pineapple rings in- I also stick a whole clove in each square. This is one of the ways a spiral slice is unworthy of existing and ruins a good ham. we seemed to like it. Then I cooked it more. I just like thick slabs of ham for dinner and sandwiches. I'm the only one in my family that likes cherries.

Can I come over and eat with you next Easter? LOL but it really sounds good.

I thought I had bought a ham that was not spiral sliced--until I unwrapped it to cook today. How did I end up with a spiral ham?!! I hate the dang things. So I took it out of the refrigerator early so it would not be so cold in a low oven and put the pineapple, cherries, juices and honey on it as usual. Skipped the cloves because of all the slices. Put the ham on a rack in my roasting pan, and covered it all with heavy duty foil, crimping the edges around the pan. Roasted it 4 hours at 200 degrees. It turned out nice, but I know the left overs won't be as good as they could be. Honey Baked Hams are delicious cold, but my family likes hot ham, and that is best if the meat is not spiral sliced to dry out.

Someone recently posted Ina's ham, and I printed it out as it's interesting. She uses the basic spiral ham with her topping but cooks it for 1 hour at 350. I don't think it was covered. I am going to try it next time. I do my spiral at 275 for 2 hours, cut side down, tightly covered, then apply the glaze and broil.

Ham always makes me wish I had a blow torch but I really don't want another gadget to use once a year and a broiler is pretty good.

Lol...I have a torch in the shed but never used it never even thought about using it expecially in the kitchen. So yesterday I surprised myself with torching the ham. My husband walked in and ask if I was planning to char the ham or only burn the house down...than he ask since the torch is run off of propane will the ham be safe to eat LOL. I have a old gas range with the broiler being under the oven. No way a ham would fit.

Meyati your Welcome to drop by next Easter always plenty.

I cook a spiral ham once in my life....leather.

I realize my ham problems are because I have the mindset of *cooking* the fully cooked when I should be *heating* it . I'm changing my ways. Lol

I agree that spiral hams are not the way to go for a great, tasting ham. Give me a solid ham always. The spirals are just too, too dry for our tastes and they have no flavor.

One thing I've noticed is that they take the best hams for spiral cuts- the the rest have odd and bad shapes. Christmas I accidently got my 3rd spiral cut. I froze the extra ham slices. Then I pulled that out last month- we had ham and cheese sandwiches, ham and eggs, and I made some Italian dishes with the ham. there wasn't much ham left, but there are just 2 of us right now.

One thing about accidently getting the spiral--it had different packaging from the spirals-and I thought that it was unsliced, but I found all of you to talk to, and you let me know that I'm not crazy with my intense dislike of spirals.

Two things I can't understand: How can cooked ham be cheaper than uncooked pork? And how can corned beef be cheaper than uncooked brisket?

Anyway. I don't like ham. The last time I had ham was 10 years ago. If I have to heat up (cook) ham I would put it in the microwave at very low power (#3) in plastic bag for an hour or check temperature. Then blast with a torch.

dcarch

Why is cook ham cheaper than uncooked...same reason canned veggies are cheaper than fresh. I know it doesn't make sense. Fresh means less packaging processing ect..less people to pay....I don't understand the industry. I suppose its about convenience. People are willing to pay extra for convenience.

Hog growing areas are near hog processing plants. Same with vegetables. farmers will often take the the lower and certain price of the canneries and meat packers than the market price for fresh foods.

Fresh veggies, fruit and meat like pork chops, fresh pork shoulder, beef brisket must be processed quickly, transported with more worry that it might spoil in transit- There are more DOT regulations. Anyway-frozen and canned goods are cheaper to store and transport. than fresh---the same can be said of smoked and corned meats.

Swift, Armour, etc. can store hams and turkeys very cheaply until Krogers, Smith, Safeway, etc orders so many units of hams or turkeys. Then they ship them out to the distributors that deliver the turkeys-hams-whatever.

I had never done a spiral cut ham, but decided to try one for this past Easter. I put it in a cooking bag in the crockpot. Never again! It was dry. I hate dry meat which is why i like my beef on the rare side

I like the ham 'jerky' chewy bit edges. Once de-salted in a water bath, then glazed with lots of garlic/onion mirepoix, ...water bath gets it nice and warm, 20min roasting high heat gives a crust just the outer edges...inside is tender/moist.

Like the corner edge of a brownie, the upper crust of a good lasagna pasta edge, so love the cornbread outer edge in a cast iron pan. Salmon steaks will have a nice crispy skin tonight, medium rare tender flesh. Tuna, scallops, steak, burgers....sear one side, flip done. I like fresh bread toasted under the broiler or grill top/one side only. Crust, soft under.

Some cheeses like a Swiss I like the hard chewy edge near the rind. Crispy fries with a soft tender inside....all about contrast.

Pizza where the crust has some chew and char, cheese on top bubbles and a bit brown but sauce and ingredients are tender between the crisp crust and the bubbly top.

I so agree with you louiseab. I love prime rib, steaks a bit more rare than most people. I've always been that way.

I really don't like sauces-I love the taste of good beef with salt and pepper. I really can't afford steak any more, but when my kids take me to a steak house, and the wait staff tries to push sauces on me, I tell them that with the price they are charging, it should be a good tasting steak without sauce.

I suppose I'll get some flack for the Coke, but the ham always turns out moist and tasty. I pour a can of Coke over and into the slices of a Costco spiral sliced ham. If there is time, I let it soak for up to 24 hours, but it is fine also when cooked immediately. We pour off the excess liquid, put the ham in a tray, and smoke it in our smoker for 2 hours. (Yes, I know we are smoking a supposedly already smoked ham. lol) It sits about 30 minutes while we prepare sides. Some guests, that are close enough to have been asked for input on their dinner menu preferences, have requested this smoked ham 3-4 times in a row.

No-no flack for Coke. I use coke for my fajita sauce. We have a smoker and a grill.

My mother loved ham and we had uncut ham on holidays and ham steaks throughout the year. Never my favorite. When I grew up and discovered spirals, it was love- as much as I'm able to for ham-loved the thinness of the spiral, makes me think of good deli ham and delicious ham sandwiches.

I agree, Louise, I want beef rare. Really rare.

gyr, you won't get any flack here either. I often pour a can of Coke or Dr. Pepper over a ham, and then glaze it during the last hour, some of my family likes the really sweet and crunchy outside edges.

meyati, I also don't feel that good beef needs any "help", other than salt and pepper.

My own ham was nice and moist, with a crunchy outside layer of brown sugar and mustard. I like pineapple but The Princess does not, so I didn't use that. We are having a LOT of leftovers, including some in today's bean soup.

dcarch, I'm not a huge fan of ham either, it's definitely something I can take or leave, but the family loves the stuff. My ham wasn't cheaper, though. I bought a whole hog locally for $1.29 a pound, and that included packaging. Since packaging is usually about 50 cents a pound, that made my pig 79 cents a pound, based on hanging weight. However, anything I wanted smoked was an additional 99 cents a pound, so ham costs me nearly $1 a pound more than fresh pork does. Same with bacon.

Annie

mayati, I don't want to derail this thread, but I've never heard of a using coke in a fajita marinade. Do you have the recipe posted in the forum, or would be willing to post it?