Baked ham from scratch – Hot or cold for sandwiches

In this post I show you how you can make baked ham yourself. With a moderate effort you achieve a super tasty result.

The great thing is that when you make your own baked ham, you know exactly what ingredients are in it and where your meat comes from. These are exactly the things I love about homemade products. 

A baked ham is super tasty on a freshly baked loaf of bread and a great change from the classic ham. You can eat it cold or warm. Both variations are super good. 

You want to learn more about ham? No problem, I have written down everything you need to know in my ham book.

Here you can find the complete baked ham recipe as a video or to read through.

Have fun and good luck making it!

Making your own baked ham- What do you need?

Ingredients per kg

• 1 kg ham from the bottom shell ideally with rind

Spices for the curing mixture: 

• 27.5 g salt
• 2.5 g Cure #1
• 3 g black pepper
• 1 g white pepper 

You can also cure the ham with other herbs or spices. I, personally, prefer it more “puristic”.

Equipment for making baked ham

Roasting pan

For the baking you ideally have a roasting pan. Alternatively, you can use only aluminum foil.

Making baked Ham- Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Clean up the meat and remove all tendons and silverskin.

2. Pour the spice mixture over the meat. Make sure the meat is covered all over. Also make sure that you weighed out the spices correctly. This is crucial with this method.

3. Put the piece of meat together with the seasoning mixture into a vacuum bag. Make sure all of the spice mixture goes into the bag with it. Alternatively, you can use a zip-lock bag and press the air out in cold water. 

4. Vacuum seal the bag.  

5. Put the piece of meat in the refrigerator for curing. Per cm of thickness, the ham will take about 1.5 days. I had my 4 cm thick piece in the refrigerator for about 7 days. Do not cure the meat shorter. Longer works fine.

6. After the curing is completed, you can take the ham out of the bag. The meat should now be firmer and lost some weight in the process.

7. Pad the meat dry with a paper towell. You could also wash off the spices under cold water. However, I leave them on.

8. Put the meat into the roasting pan. Small tip: wet skewers under the meat; otherwise the ham will burn easily. 

9. The baked ham should now be placed with the lid on in a preheated oven at 160 °C (320 °F) for approx. 1.5 – 2 hours. The core temperature is the most important metric. Depending on the roasting pan and oven, the cooking may be faster or slower. The target temperature is 68 °C (154.4 °F).

10. Shortly before you reach the target temperature (i.e. at approx. 65 °C (149 °F)) you can remove the lid and cut a nice pattern into the rind. It is best to wrap the meat with aluminum foil to prevent the meat from cooking too quickly. This way you can crisp up the rind at high heat with the grill function.

11. The baked ham is now ready 😄 You can eat it directly warm or let it cool down and rest overnight in the fridge. Have fun making it. 

What is the shelf life of baked ham?

It can be kept in the refrigerator for 1 week. You can also freeze it in portions.