Christmas is a time for baked hams and smooth glazes. In Amish kitchens, however, hams are popular year-round. And a lot of the fruit glazes that you find on hams, like an orange glaze, just weren't practically historically. Amish cooks often had very little to work with, so they had to be very creative and inventive.
Today's recipe, Baked Ham With Cracker Glaze, is one such example. It's a very simple glaze and because of the crackers it's not really that "glazy", it's more like a cracker coating or topping. It's very good.
It's an old recipe and you could swap out the brown sugar for molasses if you like your sweet stronger. You also could use brown mustard instead of regular mustard. The mustard just tempers the sweetness a bit so it's almost like a sweet and sour topping.
Saltines have become a big part of Amish culinary culture because they are so accessible and provide good coating and crunch to hams, chicken, and bacon. Saltines are very shelf-stable and you'll find Amish bulk food stores carrying boxes of saltines. The crackers find their way into soups, breads, and as casserole toppings. Here's an interesting article about the history of saltines.
This recipe is an old one and is super easy. The only thing I couldn't figure out is how much to crush the crackers. My cracker pieces were crumbly, not a fine sand texture. If I had to do it over again I'd probably crush the crackers into a more powdery form.
This recipe works best with a slice and serve ham, I'm not sure it would do so well with sliced deli ham which would be too thin.
After you spoon the cracker glaze onto sliced ham, bake at 350 for no more than 30 minutes. You don't want the ham to get overdone.
You can see this looks more like a coating or topping, I probably should have made the crumbs more powdery, but the taste of the glaze was great regardless, I'm more just thinking the powdery crumbs would look more aesthetically pleasing.
🥩 Baked Ham With Cracker Glaze
- 1 baked ham
- 2 cups packed brown sugar
- 1 sleeve of saltines, crushed
- 4 tablespoons of prepared mustard
📋 Instructions
- Crush saltines.
- Mix brown sugar and saltine crumbs.
- Add prepared mustard and stir.
- Spoon onto sliced ham and bake for 30 minutes at 350.
🥩 More Amish Ham Recipes
🖨️ Full Recipe
Baked Ham With Cracker Glaze
Ingredients
- 1 Baked Ham
- 2 cups packed brown sugar
- 1 sleeve of saltines, crushed
- 4 tablespoons prepared mustard
Instructions
- Crush saltines.
- Mix brown sugar and saltine crumbs.
- Add prepared mustard and stir.
- Spoon onto sliced ham and bake for 30 minutes at 350.
Hi Kevin! I was wondering how you would do this for a ham not baked yet...would you put it on 30 minutes before ham is done? I want to do this for my daughter and I Christmas day. Thank you and keep the stories coming! Absolutely love them
Tammi
Good question, Tammi, yeah, I think doing it 30 minutes before taking out would be a good idea...take the ham out of the oven, spoon the glaze over and put back in....I worry less about the glaze getting overbaked and more about the ham, but 30 minutes is a good rule of thumb with this glaze.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the cracker glaze recipe for ham. Most importantly though thank you for your time & efforts in the making of this site.
Now if I can only find time to make these awesome Amish recipes!
Thanks again, you do a fantastic service in keeping these recipes alive!