Sugar Honey Iced Tea Glazed Double Smoked Ham

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I double-smoked a spiral-sliced ham for our youngest son's Friendsgiving today. The ham was as impressive as ever, which I attribute to our tried and true Sugar Honey Iced Tea Ham Glaze.

Notice the rack below the ham. If you run out of glaze (you shouldn't), you can just lift the ham out for a second and pour out the "run-off" that has collected in the steam pan and brush it back on. 

Sugar Honey Iced Tea Ham Glaze

This has been the go-to ham glaze around our home for years because it has Southern flavor, and it is simple with just a few ingredients. The warm, sweet and spicy flavor profiles balance perfectly with the saltiness of the ham.

Let's talk about the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Yes, as a kid, we'd exclaim "sugar honey iced tea" instead of saying the s-word. We thought about it and considered changing the title, but some of our "Pirate Ship" friends tried the recipe, loved it, and insisted it is the shit! (pardon my French), thus the name stuck.

Sugar Honey Iced Tea Ham Glaze

Published 12/21/2021

A warm, sweet, and spicy glaze complements the ham's saltiness for a Southern-style ham.

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar (light or dark works)
• 1 cup sweet tea
• 1 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons Gentry's BBQ Ham Bone Seasoning
• 1-2 tablespoons juice from a grilled lemon
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1 tablespoon corn starch

Instructions

1. Mix the first five ingredients together in a small saucepot and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Make a slurry by whisking the cold water and starch together. Whisk into the saucepot, thickening the glaze.
3. Glaze the ham. During the last hour of cooking, keep the glaze on low heat and start glazing the ham every 15 minutes.

Yield: 2 cups

Prep Time: 00 hrs. 05 mins.

Cook time: 00 hrs. 25 mins.

Total time: 30 mins.

Here is how I did the ham.

Double Smoked Ham

Trevor got a 12.5-pound spiral-sliced smoked ham from Food City. We used the Food City brand hams for years, and they have consistently been quite good - period, not just for a "store brand." I season it heavily with Gentry's BBQ's Ham Bone Seasoning, and that's it. Ham Bone is the perfect seasoning for ham - it is warm from allspice and cinnamon, sweet from the brown sugar, and spicy courtesy of the cayenne. 

It's a fully smoked ham, so we are "double smoking" it to warm it up. I like to plan about 15 minutes a pound at 275°f, so I expected a cook of 189.45 minutes or 3.15 hours. My plan is to put the ham in a steam pan on a rack and cover it with foil until the last hour of the cook. Then I glaze every 15 minutes. I keep the glaze on low for that hour, so it gets thicker with each successive glazing, concentrating and layering the flavors. 

Using the JJ George Grill Torch to light a Kick Ash Basket full of lump charcoal. I have a chunk of hickory at the bottom, and then about 10-15 minutes before removing the foil covering, I add a preheated piece of hickory directly on top of where the coals are burning.

Even though it was a short cook, I had a lot to do around the house, so I used the BBQ Guru UltraQ to control the pit temperature at 275°f. 

I'm a big fan (pun fully intended) of the Pit Viper. I've used it on my kamado grills and even my big gravity-fed Deep South Smokers GC36.

I used one of my large Big Green Egg kamado grills for this cook. The setup was indirect, so I had a spider rig, heat deflector stone, and drip pan underneath with an Adjustable Rig on top. You could use any indirect set up including the typical ConvEggtor.

Then I let the Egg and BBQ Guru UltraQ do their thing while I did holiday cleaning in the house.

I didn't prepare the glaze until about 15 minutes before I removed the foil. I like to start with the glaze a little bit thin since the first basting will stay on the ham in the heat for an hour. I keep the glaze on low so it thickens, so by the time the last coat goes on, it is as thick as syrup.

The finished ham - sweet, smoky, warm, and slightly spicy.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!  May 2022 be a much better year for us all.