I get a spiral every year. Just follow the directions. No problems.

If you have a precooked ham, then you're just warming it, not cooking it. How it's done hardly matters so long as you don't overdo it. I agree with eld, just follow the instructions.

When we want ham, not necessarily for an occasion, we get it from a Honey Baked store. The quality is consistent and though they are bit pricey, they're reliably good. Too often ham these days is bland and flavorless. By flavorless, I don't mean flavor that a glaze adds, rather, ham too often lacks the smoky meaty flavor characteristic of a good ham. We've never gotten a bad piece from Honey Baked.

Crock pots always seem to generate (squeeze the juice out) moisture. We have ham for Christmas eve, BIL sends a honey baked one. I follow the directions that come with it. 15 min per lbs as I recall. The bigger issue for me is getting the glaze or mustard sauce between the slices, down into the meat, where it can do some good.

Can you crumple up some foil into and set the ham on that?

That should read, crumple some foil into balls and set the ham on them. (Edit didn't work on my phone)

My mother always smeared mustard ALL over the ham, then drew lines with a knife cross-crossing the ham, then stuck whole cloves...one in each little square. It was more flavorful with the mustard and cloves......smelled wonderful cooking too. ☺ Or as a second option, pineapple and brown sugar is a nice touch.

Cut side down, cook to 135, and let it come to full temp out of the oven. Final temp should be 140. If you're glazing it, don't put it on until the last 30 minutes.

I also bake precooked ham in the oven. Cooked side down at 350 degrees. I make a paste of brown sugar and yellow mustard and spread over ham. Bake about an hour and 1/2,

I do it in the crockpot and love all the juices that come with it. I just put it cut side down on a bed of dark brown sugar and let her go. I do score and add cloves before hand. I serve the juices on the side like a gravy for the ham.

I warm mine in the oven per the directions on the ham. Honey baked hams are good, but expensive. I use to get them years ago when they cost a little more, but not now. I have been buying Aldis spiral cut hams for years. My family likes them over any other spiral cut hams sold in stores. What I do, the night before I bake it is put honey and brown sugar on the ham. Then baste the ham while cooking with its pan juice.

Ham is frequently in our fridge as a lunch option, so it's not a special treat here. I've liked the Kirkland half hams"(Kentucky-something"). When I slice one, I freeze handfuls of tidbits to add to pea soup. Alessi's 'Spaccarelli' dried mix makes four cups; enough for a couple of lunches for us before we tire of it.

DH doesn't like ham except thin-sliced with cheese in a grilled sandwich, so we rarely have it and never as a main dish. (I have made a pasta dish that included cubed ham steaks but even that was iffy for him.) So, my mouth is watering!

We always do ours in the crockpot. I also don't care for the amount of fluid that you end up with. I just use a turkey baster to remove the fluid after the first hour or so (and again if it builds up once more). It always comes out pretty well and not all that different than what I have done in the oven in the past.

As far as the oven. I use to have a terrible time with oven baking hams for some reason until a friend gave me a recipe that calls for baking it at 275 for 4-6 hours. Covered the first hour, then juices drained off, and uncovered for the remainder of the time. (Glaze after the first hour if you choose) Always seems to come out great when we do it that way- though in some ways, it's not much different than the crock pot method. The ham can be basted every 30-60 minutes if desired, and keep the juices you drain off in case you need some extra for basting.

A spiral sliced ham doesn't have a "cut side" to put down, because the cuts go all around.

Many (perhaps most?) hams have water added and some have a lot added. You'll see that indicated on the label. Whether you're cooking a raw ham or heating a cooked ham, the "juices" are mostly water that has run out of the meat.

This is true of many kinds of poultry too. The brown specs that stick to the pan (called "fond", and no matter what kind of meat has been cooked) are full of flavor and can be used for sauce or gravy. The liquid is often just water and fat. This is why in using the drippings, the first step is to reduce the liquid substantially - that removes the excess water.

Yes, Elizabeth's picture is what I meant by cut side down.

I made ham for the first time ever last year. I got a Beeler's ham from the co-op which is semi-cooked, bone in. I baked it according to the directions in my "Thanksgiving and Christmas" Williams Sonoma cookbook. About 45 minutes before it was done, I removed it from the oven, scooped out excess juice from the roaster for gravy, then cut some potatoes, put them in the roaster and sliced some sweet potatoes that I put on top of the ham as well as I could. It turned out heavenly. I also made whole kernal cornbread from the same cookbook and romanesco as the green veggie. Romanesco sections look like little trees. It was probably the best meal I've ever cooked.

I prefer boiling ham to other methods. You can add spices or veggies to the cooking water or even some apple cider. It always comes out tender and juicy and can be finished in the oven of you want to add a glaze. I will sometimes oven heat a small ready to eat boneless for the two of us but for a company meal nothing beats a boiled ham. A bone in ham also gives you leftover meat for soups and the bone for stock.

If oven heating I put the ham in a shallow pan and add a bit of water and cover with foil. That seems to keep it from drying out.

I guess I am in the minority but I have never found a spiral cut ham that I liked at all. Most are too sweet for my taste I think. I could eat a slice to be polite I think but I wouldn't like it.

I agree with wildchild2x2. We do not like spiral cut hams. They are so dry.

I do not boil the hams either. I do like to bake in the oven, as well as cook in the crockpot. I always save the broth for soup or freeze to put in cornbread dressing in the future. I don't recall ever adding water to ham that I am cooking.

Putting any meat in water causes flavor to leech out of the meat into the water and leaves behind meat with less flavor than before being submerged.

As above, most ham has water added anyway and so long as it's not overcooked or warmed for too long, it should remain moist. I find top quality spiral sliced ham to be very tasty and flavorful, much more so than mid-range hams from large factory-scale producers that may be moist but it's often because of having a too-high water content. Everyone's taste is different.

Honey Baked Ham’s website reccomends not heating. Just ordered Brunch.