Why It Works
- Crosshatching the fat cap and cutting a small interior pocket exposes more surface area so salt can penetrate more effectively and season the roast throughout.
- Applying the glaze at the end of roasting keeps the sugars from scorching during the long roast.
The holiday table often hands the spotlight straight to the cured ham—the glossy, blush-pink showboat whose sweetness and rosy interior practically beg for applause. Whether it’s Christmas, New Year’s Day, or Easter, the cured ham struts in like it owns the place. But I’m here to argue that a fresh ham—properly seasoned, deeply burnished, and roasted until juicy—is infinitely better.
It delivers all the grandeur and carve-table excitement you want from a centerpiece roast, but it’s less expected, more pork-forward, and often far more affordable than cuts like beef tenderloin or prime rib that dominate this time of year. The catch is that it only shines when you season it thoroughly and cook it with intention. Luckily, that comes down to a few key steps that our colleague Julia Levy from our Birmingham, Alabama, test kitchen has perfected in her recipe below.
Pick the Right Cut
Unlike its cured cousin, fresh ham (sometimes labeled “green ham” in butcher-speak, depending on where you live) is simply a bone-in pork roast from the hind leg. If your butcher looks puzzled, specify fresh, uncured, skin-on ham. Those words matter. You’ll see shank-end and sirloin-end options; we favor the shank end because it’s easier to carve and offers more predictable cooking. That said, any fresh ham will work as long as you start with enough mass—an 8- to 10-pound roast hits the sweet spot for even cooking and dramatic presentation.
Serious Eats / Robby Lozano, Food Stylist: Jennifer Wendorf, Prop Styling: Claire Spolle
Prep and Season Like You Mean It
Fresh ham isn’t rich and fatty like pork shoulder—it’s comparatively lean—so how you prep it directly impacts juiciness. Buy it skin-on and remove the skin yourself. This ensures a thick fat cap that you can trim down to a tidy 1/4- to 1/2-inch layer of fat yourself. That fat cap is your built-in self-basting mechanism, insulating the lean meat. Crosshatching isn’t just for show: Scoring allows the fat to render more efficiently, creates crisp, bronzed edges, and lets salt work its way deeper into the meat.
Seasoning a roast this size isn’t a sprinkle-and-go situation. Julia relies on our go-to Serious Eats dry-brining approach, which uses time and diffusion to season the meat throughout. Salt moves slowly but consistently from the exterior toward the center, dissolving muscle proteins along the way so the ham retains more moisture as it cooks. Cutting a small interior pocket further gives the seasoning blend a direct path inward; the pocket isn’t visible once the ham roasts, but the flavor it delivers is undeniable. Along with the salt and sugar, Julia layers in aromatics—garlic, orange zest, thyme, rosemary, fennel—for a festive, bright flavor.
Roast for Juiciness, Not for Pulled Pork
A common mistake is treating fresh ham like pork shoulder and blasting it with heat until it’s fall-apart tender. Don’t. This cut doesn’t have the same connective tissue to withstand high final temperatures. If you take it to 160°F or beyond, it dries out fast. Instead, roast low and slow until the meat reaches about 130°F, then finish with a high-heat glaze stage to bring it to roughly 140°F before resting. As it sits, carryover heat nudges it up to a final internal temperature of about 150–155°F—perfectly cooked, still juicy, no longer pink.
Add a Sweet Glaze—but Not Too Soon
The glaze—maple syrup, bourbon, Dijon, black pepper—goes on only at the end, once the meat is nearly done. Earlier, and it would burn; later, and it wouldn’t have time to set. This two-stage glazing creates a lacquered, burnished surface without compromising tenderness.
Serving the Ham
Once the ham has rested, carving is straightforward. Slice across the grain into neat, 1/4-inch pieces and transfer them to a platter. Whatever you do, if there are any remaining pan drippings, don’t toss them. The oranges that roasted under the ham perfume the drippings with a subtle citrus warmth, and spooning that liquid over the sliced meat right before serving adds moisture and brightness.
This recipe was developed by Julia Levy; The headnote was written by Leah Colins.
