Jamie Oliver’s 2-Ingredient Ham Glaze Is Brilliantly Simple and Perfectly Delicious

Christmas ham wasn’t a part of my upbringing. “Hanukkah Ham” may have a ring to it, but for obvious reasons, it’s not a thing. Though my family hadn’t had an observant Jew in it in generations, we weren’t so distant from our heritage as to celebrate religious holidays by breaking kosher law.

It wasn’t until I was a young adult that I began consuming ham with aplomb. My meaty awakening came just a little bit before I interned with a butcher for a newspaper story. Learning to take apart whole pigs gave me a new appreciation for what goes into making the traditional food. I was hooked.

From shanks to picnic shoulders, I was far more devoted to big joints of pork than a shadow of a religion I’d never practiced. Then, I married a lapsed Mormon who prefers ham to turkey for any of the winter celebrations. Yes, I braise a brisket and make latkes for one night of Hanukkah, but even when we’re not going out for Korean barbecue to feast for the holidays, pork is usually part of the picture.

Don’t We All Need a Better Ham Glaze?

Yet, there’s one thing I hate about most ham: the glaze. Because it’s so often saccharine and lacking in personality, I was on the hunt for something different that would elevate my next spiral-sliced beauty.

I found the answer in a two-ingredient finish from Jamie Oliver. His Roasted Marmalade Ham outlines the entire preparation from a raw “higher-welfare gammon.” I didn’t have the time to invest in that, so I headed to Trader Joe’s to buy a prepared one.

There, I purchased the smallest bone-in ham they had in the store for $42. Then, I bought a jar of marmalade at my local grocery store and went into my backyard kitchen garden to clip some rosemary. Would I prefer that simple lacquer to what came with the unglazed ham?

How To Make Jamie Oliver’s Roasted Marmalade Ham

I baked the ham at 275°F for about an hour and a half to warm it through, according to the instructions on the Trader Joe’s glaze packet, but I never added that mixture. Instead, I used a knife to loosen up the jar of Smucker’s Sweet Orange Marmalade, then got out a silicon pastry brush. I painted the layers of meat liberally to get as much orange peel onto the beast as possible. Then, I stripped the leaves of rosemary from the stem onto the ham. I fired up the glaze at 450°F until nicely browned, about 15 minutes.

The result didn’t crackle like candy. Instead, it left a thin layer of stickiness that tasted subtly of orange, but more prominently of rosemary. It was Christmas, distilled.

For our first round, I served the ham with crispy mini red Idaho potatoes and lemon and garlic green beans. A seven-pound ham is a lot for two people, so we ate it for every meal for the better part of a week, working it into everything from Malaysian-style roti to a creamy pasta bake.

My best advice is to make a grilled sandwich with slices of the ham on bread that’s spread with a blend of marmalade, Kewpie mayo, and fresh rosemary. The lightly sweet sandwich kept me and my husband feeling festive all week long.