Spiced Honey Is The Perfect Addition To Your Traditional Holiday Ham

It's gloriously succulent, perfectly salty, slightly sweet, and exceptionally meaty. The roast holiday ham is a centerpiece whose outstanding appearance is always a cause for celebration. It's remarkably sticky, juicy, and satisfying, so much so that you may wonder how it could possibly be topped. That is, until you've blended it with the warm yet floral aromas of spiced honey.

Honey is a familiar acquaintance of the holiday ham, glazing the pork with a richly sweet flavor that beautifully complements the salty tastes beneath. Spiced honey builds on these flavors, adding tang, heat, acidity, and earthy hints. There are various recipes for spiced honey, and each blend opens the doorway to playful and creative scales of flavor. The profoundly savory nature of holiday ham makes it the perfect canvas for citrusy, earthy, or warming varieties of spiced honey, so grab a jar and get started.

Spiced honey is easy to make at home and usually contains a selection of ground spices such as nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. These spices embody earthy tones, adding woody, sweet, bitter, and nutty notes to the honey. Alongside these spices, chili flakes or mustard can mingle into the honey for some added heat, as well as garlic powder for a tangy nudge, and butter for a more creamy glaze. Opting for unsalted butter is advised, as you don't want the glaze to make the ham overly salty. Lastly, for a bright and light spiced taste, lemon juice can be added to accentuate the honey's natural floral notes while toning down the sweetness.

It's relatively easy to adjust the spiced honey to the flavors you want as well, as you can taste test it before layering onto the ham. To mold all these wonderful spiced aromas to the honey, it's paramount that hot honey is used and the ingredients are simmered together. Heating the honey also creates a smoother texture that's more easily spread across the surface of the meat. However, it is speculated that overheating honey can diminish some of the naturally rustic aromas within, so refrain from putting your honey over prolonged heat.

There are over 300 varieties of honey to choose from, varying in taste, texture, and appearance. Like the spiced ingredients inside your honey, you'll want to mindfully select the nectar so that it marries with the aromas you want to highlight. Honey also doesn't go bad, so you can invest in a new variety and store it for future recipes as long as needed. 

Generally, concerning taste, pale-colored honey is light. Clover and acacia honey are both mild varieties that blend floral hues into cooked dishes. They have a sweet disposition that's not overpowering, so they are ideal for a glaze that includes other sweet ingredients such as molasses or brown sugar.

At the other end of the scale is buckwheat honey, which is available in shades of dark amber to black and has a much more intense flavor. It's not necessarily sweet but layered with rich woody notes echoing earthy, musky, and malty sentiments. It pairs well with savory dishes where the buckwheat balances the salty elements well. Either way you choose, spiced honey is the ultimate ingredient to turn your holiday ham into the showstopper it deserves to be.