The Best Fresh Ham Roast in Oven – Easy To Make

Fresh ham roasts are moist, tender, flavorful, and incredibly delicious. “How do I cook a ham roast?” Good question! I’ve got a simple ham roast recipe and easy tips for cooking any fresh ham roast! This recipe is easy enough for weeknights and a popular choice for special occasions like Easter dinner and big family Christmas dinners!

What is a “Ham Roast”? 

Ham roasts are different from other types of ham like pre-cooked ham, spiral-cut ham, ham steaks, country ham, city ham, cured ham, whole ham, and half ham. Fresh Ham Roast is fresh because it is uncured, uncooked, and unsmoked… It has not been processed in any way. Most hams are cured, but ham roast isn’t cured at all… It’s “fresh” like a variety of other roasts: rump roast, pork shoulder roast, etc.

Ham Roasts are leaner cuts of pork, they aren’t naturally tender and it has longer meat fibers. It also has less fat marbling inside the meat than a pork shoulder and Boston butt roast. Ham Roast comes from the hind leg of pork, and it has a nice fat layer on the outer layer. Ham roasts can be purchased as boneless ham or bone-in ham.

This recipe is the best way to cook a fresh ham roast, in my opinion! Prep only takes about 15 minutes, then you can sit back and relax as your oven does all the work for the next 2 and 1/2 hrs. 

Ingredients

• A 3 – 5 lb fresh uncooked ham roast (not cured)
• 2 1/2 cups of water
• Salt
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• 1/2 cup real maple syrup
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Tools

• Aluminum Foil
• Roasting Pan
• Sharp Knife

How To Cook Ham Roast 

1. Brine roast for 3-6 hours then pat dry. (Instructions below!)
2. Prep your ham! Cut the top fat layer in a diamond pattern or in parallel lines for seasoning!
3. Preheat oven to 350º
4. Place ham into a 13×9 inch baking dish. 
5. Season generously with salt and pepper on all sides of your ham roast. Make sure to rub the seasoning into the diamond-shaped or parallel lines cup on the fat layer.
6. Add 2 – 3 cups of cold water to the baking pan… The water level needs to come up about 1 inch on the sides of your roast. 
7. Tightly cover your shallow roasting pan or baking dish with foil to seal in steam.

How To Cook Fresh Ham Roast

1. Place the prepared roast into the oven for 2 hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 160º or up to 195º for fall-apart pulled pork. (For food safety make sure your ham reaches at least 145 degrees internally!) For a bigger ham roast, you should use less salt and a longer soak time. The reason for this is to let the solution penetrate the ham evenly all the way to the bone without making the outside too salty. Smaller hams require more salt and a shorter soak time. After 2 hours of roasting, remove the roast from the oven.
2. Turn the oven temperature up to 450º
3. Remove foil from pan. 
4. Mix maple syrup and balsamic vinegar and bast roast with that.
5. Place ham roast in the oven, and set the timer for 10-15 minutes of cook time. Baste roast every 5 minutes or as often as you like at this stage of cooking!
6. After 10-15 minutes, turn the ham roast over and baste the other side, roast for another 10-15 minutes to brown both sides. (The water will ALMOST be cooked out, but there should be a little left for basting before serving.)
7. After browning, remove your roast from the oven, and let it cool for at least 10 mins.  
8. For best results, use a spoon and take the remaining liquids from the bottom of your baking dish and cover your baked ham roast with them. This gives the roast back all those yummy flavors that have cooked down through the roasting process!

Serve Ham Roast

To serve ham roast, place your finished roast on a carving board or a serving platter, and slice across the grain…. Enjoy! To serve your ham roast in “pulled pork” style, just shred it with two forks and serve! 

Tips

• DO NOT Remove the FAT!  Fat on your ham roast will give it flavor and help keep it moist through the cooking process. You do not have to eat it! Just cut any fat left on your roast after cooking and off before serving, if desired.
• ***The steam from the water in your roasting pan keeps your ham roast moist while it’s cooking! So don’t let the water run out.)
• Slowcooker – You can also cook your ham roast in the slow cooker for the first couple of hours, instead of in the oven… However, slow cookers are lower temperature, so follow the same instructions with water and seasoning but increase cooking time to at least 7 hours, and cook till internal temperature is 145º. Then follow the rest of the instructions to brown and serve ham roast!
• For Pulled Pork: Shred-It! Ham roasts don’t usually just fall apart after you’re done cooking it. But It’s simple to shred and pull apart after it has cooled. Use a knife, or two forks, to push and pull (not cut) the meat apart. Then, place shredded ham roast into a serving bowl, add cooking liquids left in the bottom of your roasting pan, and serve!

How To Brine Roast

Brining Ham Roast – Brining ham roast will boost the moisture level of meat and make it more tender and flavorful! This is really good with fresh ham roast because it’s such a lean cut of pork. Brining fresh ham roast before cooking gives great results! What is brine? Read on! Brine is a mixture of salt and water–you soak the ham in the brine for a specified period.

Why you should brine ham roast before cooking: Brining seasons the pork with salt while enhancing its natural flavors and improves the texture. Change the texture? Yes, brining tenderizes the meat by “unwinding” strands of protein, or meat fibers. It also helps water to get into the muscle for extra moisture while cooking, and makes the final meat “juicier,” with a more tender texture, and much more flavorful!

Brining meat is not that hard! Different kinds and sizes of roasts need varying amounts of salt and time to soak. This is how to brine a 3-5 lb ham roast: Dissolve 1/2 – 3/4 a cup of salt (*optional – and an equal amount of sugar) in a large pot. Fill your pot with water, enough to totally cover your ham. Cover the pot with plastic wrap (or foil). Soak the raw ham in your brine (saltwater) in the refrigerator for 3 to 6 hours. Then, remove the roast from the fridge and rinse it with fresh water. Dry your roast with a paper towel napkin, and follow this recipe to cook!

Brine NOTE

For a bigger ham roast, you will need to use less salt and a longer soaking time. That’s because you need to let the solution penetrate deeper into the ham all the way to the bone without the outside getting too salty. (Smaller hams require more salt and a shorter soak time.)

Easiest Cooking Instructions

• Easiest cooking: Unwrap fresh ham roast, then give it a good rinse. Place your roast into your crockpot with a cup of water. Set to low heat and let it cook for 7 hours. After 7 hours of cooking, let it cool and then shred your roast with two forks. Add cooking liquids to a small pot and simmer with seasonings, then season pork with liquid seasoning mixture.
• Easiest flavoring: Rub your fresh ham roast with seasonings before your cook it: 2-4 tablespoons dark brown sugar, 1-2 teaspoons of your favorite salt (omit salt if you brined), 2 teaspoons ground cumin, 2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper.

Recipe Card:

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Different Type Of Fresh Ham Roast Recipe:

Often you see a thin cut ham that’s large in diameter at the grocery store. (A ham too big to fit on a dinner plate, but only 1-2 inches thick, for example) This cut of ham roast was cut from up high on the hind leg, where the leg is the widest. These kinds of ham roast cuts are really good “stuffed” or rolled with filling. Roll this ham up with a stuffing recipe, wrap it with cooking twine, season with salt and ground black pepper, and baked it in the oven!

This type of ham, fresh ham roasts, does not need to be marinated. Just brine for best results!