About a decade ago, a cyberpal who is a very good cook raved about making ham with a Coca-Cola glaze, as she was about to do for Easter. It was a popular method, she assured me, even though word of this hadn’t reached me in Manhattan. I was a bit skeptical, but she’d never shared a bad recipe, so I tried it. It’s the only way I’ve made ham since.
A couple years ago, Cook’s Illustrated got wind of this method and looked into it with their usual exhaustive — and exhausting; as they plow through every possible variation of something I find myself thinking, just get to the recipe, already — thoroughness and deemed it good. As I recall, they used a couple 2-liter bottles of Coke for a brine. In a follow-up, CI printed a letter from a reader who complained about not being warned the sugary mixture would foam up. Yes, it will, but as we’re using only part of a 12-ounce can here, mixed in a small bowl, that shouldn’t be a problem.
So here’s my cyberpal’s recipe, in her words:
Coca-Cola Ham
ham
Coke Classic — not Diet
light brown sugar — 1 to 2 cups
1) I buy a boneless ham (but you could use bone-in or spiral cut if you want).
2) Then, I take a 9 x 13″ pan and line it with aluminum foil. Let enough foil hang over the sides of the pan so that when the ham’s in the pan, you can bring the foil up over the ham and seal it. (This step just keeps the ham more moist and helps with clean-up later.) Put the ham in the pan. Score the ham. (Skip the scoring if you’re using a spiral cut ham.)
3) For the glaze, I put 1 or 2 cups of light brown sugar in a bowl. You don’t have to be precise. You can’t mess it up! Then, to that, add enough Classic Coke (not diet!!) to make a thick “syrup.”
4) Pour that over the ham. Bring the foil up over the ham and fold it to seal.
5) Put the ham in a 350 degree oven and bake 15 minutes for every pound. Every now and then you can unseal the foil and spoon some of the sauce up over the ham (I usually do), but you don’t have to if you don’t want.
6) At the end of the baking time, remove the ham from the oven and serve. Oh, and be sure to serve the sauce on the side. It makes a GREAT dipping sauce for the ham!!!!
Related: Creole Glazed Ham
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I have been doing this for 15 years now, only slightly different then what has been posted here.
I actually make a maranade with half a bottle of coke, score if needed. I use coke (not diet), brown sugar, and other spices. I let the ham hit in the maranade over night, then lightly boil the ham, not it will not dry it out, then remove from boil add cherries, and pinapple. I then place in oven at 350 degree temp.
John’s last blog post..To My Loving Wife On Our Anniversary
Thanks for the alternative method, John, and Happy Holidays!