Smoked Ham with Cranberry Honey Compound Butter

A delicious and flavorful spiral sliced smoked ham covered in a rich and creamy homemade cranberry honey butter. The perfect holiday ham that is smoked to perfection, ready to grace your dinner table this holiday season!

Smoked spiral ham covered in a cranberry butter makes for the best Christmas ham covered in a succulent sweet crust. And when you smoke it using hickory wood, you really start to taste all the different subtle flavors in this heavenly ham. This hickory ham is so easy to smoke, you'll be blown away at the minimal effort it takes to prep it and then serve.

Why This Recipe Works

• This recipe is lathered in a homemade compound butter and then topped with brown sugar,
• You'll use a pre-cooked spiral ham that can either be pre-sliced or whole,
• Light the smoker, set it, and forget it.

It's really that easy. 

Types of Ham

Let's talk a little bit about the different types of hams that are out there and available for purchase. You actually have a lot of options to consider when purchasing a ham. 

When it comes to smoking a ham, my personal preference is to use a spiral ham because of how flavorful and tender it turns out. Spiral ham is easy to find and one of the most common types you'll find during the holiday season. And, they come in all different sizes. According to Our Everyday Life, a spiral cut is made by slicing a bone-in city ham in one continuous spiral, leaving the meat on the bone in its original shape. So instead of carving it by hand, the meat is cut from the bone and that's how you obtain those perfect, consistent slices.

City hams are very common and can be found at most grocery stores. They come whole and are wet cured, typically smoked. They can be packaged and sold pre-cooked and "ready-to-eat" or cured and smoked, which must then be cooked before consuming. While full city hams are readily available, they are typically very large, weighing in between 15-25 pounds. Because of their size, they're usually cut into a butt and a shank portion, with the butt yielding larger slices. You'll find that some are boneless, while others are a bone in. 

I've used a picnic ham with this recipe before, but it's not as flavorful. Picnic ham is cured and is a cut of pork taken from the upper portion of the foreleg extending to the shoulder. A lot of people don't feel it is a "true ham" because it doesn't come from the back of the leg. 

Ham steaks are slices of a cured ham and are sold pre-sliced for easy cooking. I like using this type for breakfast or on sandwiches.

Bone In and Boneless Ham

When it comes to this recipe, it doesn't matter if you have a ham on the bone or if it's boneless. It comes down to convenience and individual preference. A pre-cooked and ready-to-eat ham can be purchased as both boneless and bone in versions. A lot of people really like a bone in ham because it looks amazing, is juicy as well as tender. But, it's really hard to slice. Which is why I chose boneless.

Pre-Sliced and Whole Hams

You can buy a pre-sliced or whole ham. For this recipe, I like buying a pre-sliced ham because I can really get the cranberry compound butter deep into the crevices of each slice. Some feel it's hard to smoke a pre-sliced ham, but I'll let you in on a little secret. If you insert a digital thermometer into the middle of the sliced ham, it won't separate and dry out while it smokes.

Where to Purchase Ham

To make things as simple as possible with this recipe, I buy a pre-cooked ham. My "go to" place to purchase is at the Honeybaked Ham Company store. I always tell them to not glaze it since I'm using my own homemade glaze and I'm smoking it. You can also purchase it at your local grocery, butcher, or Costco. I've always had a really good experience when smoking a Costco spiral ham. Boar's Head hams are also really good. 

Preparing the Smoker

This hickory honey ham can be smoked on any type of smoker. Here’s a brief overview of how to prepare four of the most common smokers used today. 

Charcoal Smoker

When using a charcoal smoker for any smoker recipe, it’s important to control the heat and feed the fire. When I use a charcoal smoker for this recipe, I use charcoal briquettes, a large handful of wood chips, and a small water pan. I love using hickory wood chips with this recipe. I start by soaking a handful of wood chips for about 30 minutes. Wood chips burn out pretty fast and by soaking them first, I find that it helps them burn a bit longer.

From there, remove the grill grate and place about 15 unlit charcoal briquettes on one side of the smoker. Then, place the moist wood chips on top of the briquettes. I use a chimney starter to light about 20 more briquettes and once hot, I dump them on top of the unlit pile of charcoal and wood chips. 

Place the grill grate back in place and put a small pan of water on the grate directly on top of the hot charcoals. Put the lid on the smoker and place a temperature gauge in one of the vents so you can regulate the internal temperature. When the internal temperature of the smoker gets around 225°F, you’re ready to start smoking the meat.

Gas Smoker

A gas smoker runs on a propane gas tank. When using a gas smoker, I highly recommend using wood chunks instead of wood chips. Chunks are going to burn a lot longer and I find they help produce more smoke faster.

You’ll want to prepare the wood and water pan before igniting the flame. When cooking a small pre-cooked ham on the smoker, it doesn’t take more than 4 hours to smoke so I don’t typically soak the wood chucks for this recipe. There’s a lot of opinions around the need for soaking your wood and I only do it when I’m smoking meat that takes more than 8 hours, like with my smoked pork butt. Once the wood and water pan are in place, light the smoker. When the internal temperature reaches 225°F, you’re ready to start smoking the meat.

Electric Smoker and Pellet Smokers

Both the electric smoker and pellet smokers run off electricity and need to be plugged into an outside electrical outlet. Pellet smokers run on wood pellets and you have a choice whether or not you want to use wood with an electric smoker. With both of these smokers, you’ll digitally set the smoker to the desired temperature and when it’s preheated, you’ll be ready to start smoking your meat.

Ingredients You'll Need

All you need for this recipe is a ham and four simple ingredients to make the compound butter. If you're feeding 6 to 8 people, you'll need 3-4 pounds of boneless ham. This is my preference and how this recipe is constructed. When making the compound butter, I recommend using unsalted butter because the ham is naturally salty. I'm a big fan of using unsalted butter in most recipes because it allows me to control the level of saltiness in a dish.

It doesn't matter if your cranberries are fresh or frozen, just don't use canned cranberries when making the butter. Fresh is best.

How To Make Cranberry Butter

Compound butter is shockingly really easy to make and this cranberry compound butter is so delicious! To start, you're going to add the fresh cranberries, water, honey, and brown sugar into a small saucepan over medium heat.  Expert Tip: If you want to use fresh orange juice to add to the flavor, add it in here. When the liquids start to boil, use a hand held masher to start crushing the cranberries so the juice is released.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to mix the ingredients together for another 1-2 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and place the mixture in a medium size bowl to allow the content to cool, about 7-10 minutes.  

Next, add the softened butter to the bowl of cooled mixture. Using a handheld mixer on low speed, combine the ingredients until well combined. Expert Tip: You want the butter to be at room temperature, and not melted. If it's melted, the consistency will be off and the butter will never form.

Using a spatula, remove the cranberry butter and place it onto a large piece of parchment paper. Divide the mixture in half and put it on plate. Set aside.

For the remaining half of the butter that is on the paper, starting from one edge of the parchment paper, carefully roll the mixture, tucking the paper under the mixture as best you can and form into a log shape.

Using both hands, twist the ends on the parchment paper on both sides so it looks like a large tootsie roll. Place it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to set.

Using the cranberry compound butter that you set aside earlier, apply it to the entire outside layer using either your hands or a bastings brush. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of the butter mixture.

Preparing and Smoking the Ham

When the smoker is prepared and pre-heated to 225°F, place the meat directly on the smoker rack. Insert a digital meat thermometer into the center of the ham.

From there, just let the it smoke low and slow. There is no need to move or turn it. The ham is considered done when the thermometer reaches 145°F, about 2-3 hours later. I mean, just look at the golden smoked crust. This is the best glazed ham and you're going to love the flavor!

Once removed from the smoker, slice the chilled cranberry honey butter and place thin butter slices in between each slice and let it melt.

From there, you're ready to serve one of the best spiral hams you'll ever eat. Cooking a ham really doesn't get any easier than this one. 

Leftover Ham

If you have leftover meat, use it to make a ham sandwich. Or, add small cut up pieces when making a pot of white beans or a white bean soup. Adding ham to scalloped potatoes is also quite tasty!

Expert Tips and FAQs

• I like to use hickory wood when smoking ham. That's why I like to refer to this recipe as  hickory honey ham. Hickory wood is a traditional choice for smoking ham.
• You want the butter to be at room temperature, and not melted. The consistency will be off and the butter will never form.
• If you don't have an electric or standing mixer, use a whisk to mix together the compound butter ingredients. 
• I love a good spiced ham and if you want to spice this recipe up even more, add some fresh chopped rosemary and fresh juice from an orange to the compound butter. You can even add a small amount of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove.
• If you're using a water pan in your smoker, add in 1 cup of apple cider vinegar to enhance the flavor to the meat.
• When smoking ham, you want to smoke it low and slow. Keep the heat in the smoker between 225°F and 250°F.

More Smoker Recipes

If you're loving all my smoker recipes, then you have to make sure and try my Applewood Smoker Chicken. People RAVE over this recipe and yes, it's really that delicious! I have an entire collection of smoked meat recipes and even some smoked side dishes. Check out my collection here.

And if you’re looking for more smoker recipes, check out my latest cookbook, Smoking Meat Made Easy.  This is your ultimate guide to backyard smoking and features 65 smoker recipes! You can master the most flavorful techniques, with dozens of options that are easy to follow, and work with any type of smoker. 

 

If you're looking for a Thanksgiving ham, then this recipe is for you. This recipe also makes for an amazing Easter ham. But since it's so easy to make, I like making it throughout the year. It really is perfect anytime!

I can’t wait to hear how this one turned out! If you’ve tried this or any other recipe of mine on the website, make sure you rate the recipe and let me know how it turned out in the comments below! I love hearing from you!

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