Ham Glazes that Pop

If you’re looking for a different ham glazes to jazz up your Holiday Ham this year, try a glaze with real pop.
Peculiar as it may sound, soda pop is a tried and true ingredient in many ham glaze variations, used in recipes by such celebrity cooks as Emeril Lagasse and Nigella Lawson. These concoctions use nearly any pop, any brand found on your grocer’s shelves – colas, ginger ales and lemon-lime sodas, orange, cherry, even diet soda to cut the calories (you get the picture).
What’s the benefit of adding pop? That carbonation in the soda acts to cut the sharpness of the salty flavor of some hams. This is a big plus particularly if your taste buds react more strongly to sodium.
The most basic ham glaze contains a type of sugar (brown or maple sugar are common), an acidic liquid (such as vinegar) and flavoring agents for subtle or bold tang and spice – depending on your preference. In these, the soda replaces the vinegar and adds flavor as well.
Here are some to get you thinking:

• Emeril Lagasse’s Spiced Honey and Lemon Baked Ham
• Nigella’s Ham in Coca-Cola
• A basic Ginger Ale Ham Glaze from CDKitchen

Use these to add pop to your glaze or experiment with your own soda pop ham glazes, then share with us the results.