Sous Vide Spiral Ham with Pineapple Glaze is easy, delicious, and saves oven space! Serve this juicy ham for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter.
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The holidays are coming, and you are looking for recipes! I know everybody goes for Prime Rib and Air Fryer Filet Mignon.
I am going to show you how to take your store-bought traditional ham and turn it into the most delicious holiday ham!
Cooking ham sous-vide frees up oven space for your Cranberry Parsnip Gratin, Green Beans Almondine, and Boursin Mashed Potatoes.
So your ham is already cooked, and your job is to heat it and finish it with a pineapple glaze.
Your ham comes pre-seasoned and vacuum-packed, so it is unnecessary to take it out of its original packaging.
Ovens tend to dry out spiral-cut hams since they are pre-sliced. Cooking sous vide keeps the moisture in, resulting in a juicy ham recipe.
To explore more sous-vide recipes, I suggest my Sous Vide Scallops and the Sous Vide Ribeye Steak.
🤔What is a Ham?
Ham is an interesting term because it's a cut of pork, but you can also ham something. You have smoked ham, cooked ham, boneless ham, baked ham, spiral ham, parma ham, etc.
Traditional ham comes from the leg or thigh of a pig. Have you ever wondered why ham is pink in color? Ham is brined in a saltwater solution containing sodium nitrates.
Sodium nitrate preserves meat from unwanted bacteria and gives it a rosy pink color.
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⭐️ Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Cooking ham sous vide frees up your oven to make delicious sides like our Sweet Potato Soufflé with Pecans.
- Glazed ham is perfect for leftovers. Make ham sandwiches using my air fryer dinner rolls and Cranberry Chutney.
- Preparing a spiral ham is a great main dish for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter.
🍳 WHAT IS SOUS VIDE?
Sous vide is a cooking method that utilizes an immersion circulator, also known as a sous vide machine. This device circulates water in a temperature-controlled bath, ensuring your food is always cooked perfectly.
To learn more about sous vide cooking, head over and read What is Sous Vide Cooking.
WHAT IS THE WATER DISPLACEMENT METHOD?
The displacement method involves slowly submerging a ziplock bag in water, which pushes the air out through the slightly open top of the bag.
Use a clip (I prefer sous vide magnets) to attach the bag to the side, preventing it from floating and letting air or water inside.
EQUIPMENT USED
- Anova Precision Sous Vide Cooker
- EVERIE 12 quart container
- FoodSaver vacuum sealer machine
- Vacuum sealed bags
Looking for some sous-vide suggestions? Try the Sous Vide Corn on the Cob and our Sous Vide Thanksgiving Turkey.
📝 Ingredient Notes
Here is a visual overview of the sous-vide ham ingredients in this recipe. Scroll to the recipe at the bottom for quantities.
- Ham - This recipe uses pre-cooked, cured, and smoked ham. Curing the pork is what gives the ham its pink color. If color isn't important, you could use a pork loin or pork butt with a nice ham glaze.
- Pineapple - We used 1 cup of fresh diced pineapple, but canned pineapple works great too.
- Pineapple Juice - Fresh pineapple juice gives this glaze a delicious flavor!
- Brown Sugar - Cooking down the sugar gives the glaze a sweet flavor and thick consistency.
- Spices - Ground cinnamon and cloves spice up this glaze, making it taste like Christmas!
- Butter - I like to finish my ham glaze with 1 tablespoon of butter for a nice shine.
See recipe card for quantities.
🥘 Substitutions & Variations
- Ham: We chose a spiral-cut ham for this recipe. Other options are Kurobota, City Ham, or a boneless smoked ham.
- Uncured Ham: I recommend using a pork shoulder or a pork loin. Season with brown sugar, salt, and winter spices. Cook for 18 hours at 140°F/60°C. Finish the uncured ham with your favorite glaze in a hot oven.
- Pork Tenderloin: This pineapple glaze would be delicious with my Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin.
- Glaze: There are so many ways to glaze a ham. My three favorites are Pineapple glaze, apple-mustard glaze, and a balsamic-brown sugar glaze.
🔪 Step-By-Step Instructions
Learn how to make this ham recipe for dinner with these easy-to-follow instructions.
Step 1. Sous-Vide Ham. Fill a plastic container with 6 quarts of water and secure your precision cooker. Program your precision cooker to 140°F/60°C. Place ham into a large 2-gallon ziplock bag and submerge into water for 6-8 hours.
Step 2. Preparing Pineapple. Cut off the top and bottom of the pineapple. Using a sharp knife, cut off all of the skin. Slice pineapple into planks and finely dice. Tip - You can always use canned pineapple instead.
Step 3. Pineapple Glaze. In a medium saucepan combine pineapple, pineapple juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves.
Step 4. Cooking Glaze. Bring the glaze to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes. Finish the pineapple glaze with a tablespoon of butter.
Step 5. Glazing the ham. Remove the ham from the hot water bath and place on a roasting rack. Brush the ham with pineapple glaze, brushing between every slice.
Step 6. Finishing the ham. Preheat an oven to 500°F/260°C. Place the ham on the bottom rack and cook for 15-20 minutes.
👨🏻🍳 Chef Tips
- Only fill your container halfway with water. When you submerge the ham, it will raise the water level.
- Most pre-cooked hams come packaged in a vacuum-sealed bag, so there is no need to place the ham into a large ziplock bag.
- If you are cooking a smaller ham, decrease the cooking time to 4-6 hours.
- We used fresh pineapple in this recipe, but canned pineapple works great too.
- Whisk in a tablespoon of cold butter to finish the glaze to give it a nice shine.
- When glazing a spiral ham, make sure to get in between all of the slices of ham.
- Caramelize the ham in a hot oven for 15-20 minutes or until it looks amazing!
- Make sure to leave a little meat on the ham bone to make an epic soup.
❓Recipe FAQ's
Preheat the sous vide precision cooker to 140°F/60°C. For a 3-4 pound ham, cook for 4 hours, and for a 9-10 pound ham, cook for 8 hours.
The best temperature to sous vide pre-cooked ham is 140°F/60°C. It's almost impossible to overcook sous vide ham. Leaving it in the water bath for too long results in a mushy texture.
Yes! By increasing half of the normal cooking time you can sous vide frozen ham. For example, a frozen 10-pound ham takes 8 hours to cook, so a frozen ham would take 14 hours to prepare.
Yes! Precooked ham usually comes vacuum-sealed, so there is no need to remove the original packaging.
It's easy to dry out the spiral-cut ham in the oven. That's why sous vide cooking is great! Since the ham will be vacuum-sealed, it will retain its moisture and stay juicy.
🍽 Related Recipes
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review below and tag @thefrizzledleek on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!
📖 Recipe
Sous Vide Ham with Pineapple Glaze
Equipment
Ingredients
- 9 pound bone-in ham cured, smoked, and spiral cut
Pineapple Glaze
- 1 cup fresh pineapple diced
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Instructions
- Heat a sous vide water bath to 140°F/60°C.
- Place ham into a vacuum-sealable bag (or a large 2-gallon ziplock bag if using the water displacement method).
- Vacuum seal the bag and place it into the hot water bath for 8 hours. (If you have a smaller ham, decrease the time to 4-6 hours).
- Preheat the oven to 500°F/260°C.
- Brush the ham with the pineapple glaze. (Make sure to get in between all of the slices). Bake for 20 minutes, removing to baste more every 5 minutes.
- Remove the ham from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting.
Pineapple Glaze
- Place the glaze ingredients in a medium saucepan.
- Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes stirring frequently.
- Whisk in 1 tablespoon of cold butter to finish the sauce.
Notes
Chef Tips
- Only fill your container halfway with water. When you submerge the ham, it will raise the water level.
- Most pre-cooked hams come packaged in a vacuum-sealed bag, so there is no need to place the ham into a large ziplock bag.
- If you are cooking a smaller ham, decrease the cooking time to 4-6 hours.
- We used fresh pineapple in this recipe, but canned pineapple works great too.
- Whisk in a tablespoon of cold butter to finish the glaze to give it a nice shine.
- When glazing a spiral ham, make sure to get in between all of the slices of ham.
Nutrition
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