My 1-Ingredient Upgrade for Holiday Ham (It Works Every Time)

A juicy, glazed ham is the centerpiece of many family holiday dinners, including mine. Served with mashed potatoes, baked macaroni and cheese, roasted carrots, and a batch of fluffy yeast rolls, it’s a feast I personally look forward to all year long. 

Over the years, I've been on a quest to find the absolute best holiday ham recipe. I’ve found many good contenders like this 3-ingredient ham glaze, but the one ingredient yields the most flavorful, aromatic, and juicy oven-baked ham is root beer. Yes, you read that correctly, a bottle or two of root beer is the secret ingredient your ham has been missing.

How I Started Using Root Beer for Ham

I first tried using ham and root beer together in a crockpot recipe for pulled ham. Simply add a bone-in half ham to an eight-quart slow cooker. I personally prefer the butt portion over the shank. Then rub the ham with brown sugar and pour two to three cups of your favorite brand of root beer into the slow cooker.

Cooked on low for eight to 10 hours, you end up with the most flavorful, fall-apart tender ham you’ve ever eaten. It’s the best recipe for hot ham and rolls. My family serves this at game day gatherings and potlucks all year long. The recipe was so good that I experimented with it one Christmas to prepare our holiday oven-baked ham. Let’s just say, I’ve never looked back since. 

Why Root Beer Makes Ham Delicious

Root beer may seem like an odd choice when you hear it at first, but it makes a lot of sense from a flavor and food science standpoint. Flavor-wise, modern root beer is typically made with a blend of spices and ingredients, including wintergreen, vanilla, licorice root, and other spices like cloves, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and molasses. Many of these ingredients, particularly cloves, molasses, anise, and nutmeg, are often added to traditional ham glaze recipes. 

From a scientific perspective, root beer is an excellent tenderizer. Its acidity and high sugar content work in tandem to break down tough proteins and aid in caramelization (just like cola does for these steak tips).

Specifically, many root beers contain phosphoric acid, a preservative that also helps give root beer its dark color, which works similarly to vinegar or lemon juice in a marinade to tenderize muscle fibers.

How To Make an Oven-Baked Ham with Root Beer

To make a succulent holiday ham with root beer, you’ll use it both as a braising liquid and as a glaze. You’ll begin by placing a bone-in half ham into a deep roasting pan, cut-side down. You can score the ham with a diamond pattern if desired.

Next, pour two cans (about 24 ounces) of root beer over the ham. You want enough to create a shallow pool one to two inches deep of root beer for the ham to simmer in. 

Cover the roasting pan tightly with foil and then bake the ham at 300°F until it reaches an internal temperature of 140°F. I like to baste the ham with the braising liquid every 30 minutes to help ensure maximum juiciness.

About an hour before the ham is done, uncover it and transfer about one cup of the braising liquid to a small saucepan. Add 3/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, and two tablespoons of Dijon mustard to the root beer. Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture has reduced slightly in volume. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Brush the ham with the glaze every 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes before carving.

Can You Use Root Beer with Other Types of Ham?

Sure! While a bone-in ham will typically result in a juicier, more tender ham, you can also use this method with a boneless ham or spiral cut ham. In fact, braising a boneless or spiral ham is a great way to help make these leaner hams even juicier.

The Best Size of Ham When Using with Root Beer

If using a bone-in half ham, choose a portion that’s between six and 10 pounds for best results. When shopping for a bone-in half ham, you’ll have the choice between the shank or the butt portion. The shank potion has a simpler bone structure, so it is slightly easier to carve. The butt portion, while a little trickier to carve, is typically the more tender portion of a ham. Choose the butt if you want a ham with a rich, meaty flavor.