Blount: Glaze the key to a DIY Honey Baked-style ham

shank will have a ham that has a much darker, richer color, but you have to slice it very thin compared to the butt or it can get a little tougher. But given enough cooking time, they both render down fine.”

Like Colonel Sanders’ original recipe, the Honey Baked recipe has never been made public, but multiple online cooks have taken a crack at it with good results.

We can get very close, and most of the ingredients to make a Honey Baked-style glaze probably are already in your pantry: honey, sugar and cinnamon. A trip to the store may be in order for the allspice and ground ginger needed to give it an added pop. Mix it all together on the stovetop until the sugar is dissolved, and the glaze will have a consistency slightly thicker than house paint.

The key is to apply that glaze at the beginning, middle and end of the heating process. The sugars in the mix will give the ham a nice blackened exterior that mixes the sweet flavors with the savory nature of the ham after a few hours at a lower heat.

Now there is one advantage Honey Baked hams have over the DIY variety — the signature thin spiral slicing. These machines slice around the bone and deliver uniform cuts that look awfully pretty on the kitchen table. You can buy other spiral-sliced hams, but Honey Baked does them the best.

For your DIY ham, it’s best to simply grab a good slicing knife and do your best. Let the knife do the work, with slow, glided slices, and you will have a great, less expensive version of the Honey Baked ham experience.

William Luther / Staff photographer