Home >> baking | By: Phillip Rekhotho | 2024-02-27

Should you cover ham with foil when baking?(yes, here is why)

Typically enjoyed on special occasions and holidays, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter, ham is one of the most loved foods. Usually, ham is covered with aluminum foil when baking, but what if you don't cover it, what will happen? Today, we'll find out the answers to these questions.

In this post, I'll be giving some of the reasons to cover ham in a roasting pan when baking.

Summary

Covering ham with aluminum foil when baking helps it to cook through without becoming dry. Moreover, this will also retain the taste and flavor of the ham by preventing molecules that are responsible for the taste of the ham from escaping the roasting pan.

Not covering ham will likely make it to be undercooked on the inside while being burnt on the outside.

Should you cover ham with foil when baking in the oven?

Whether you should cover the ham with aluminum foil when baking or not is dictated by the outcome that you get if you bake it uncovered. Now let's take a look at what will happen if you don't cover the ham, and also give some benefits of covering ham when baking.

1 — Covering ham prevents it from being undercooked

Ham or pretty much pork or any meat in general typically contains bacteria that get killed during the cooking process. Sometimes, because of undercooking, these bacteria don't die, instead cause some issues(e.g.: diarrhea) to the person eating the meat.

The reason we are bringing this up is because when ham is baked uncovered it tends to be undercooked.

Uncovered ham will lose more and more moisture pretty quickly and become dry, and eventually, it'll burn on the outside while being undercooked on the inside. When you notice signs of burning on the outside, you may think it's cooked through, and then take it out of the oven and serve it.

So to avoid this issue, cover your ham with aluminum foil or anything that can prevent it from being undercooked.

2 — Covering ham improves its taste and flavor

As surprising as it may sound, covering ham with aluminum foil or anything will help it retain its taste and flavor. How is this possible?

When ham is baked uncovered, it will lose more and more fat. Because fats are responsible for giving the ham its taste, the taste of the ham will be ruined.

Moreover, other compounds that give cooked ham its taste, such as hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, lactones, ethers, furans, etc, will be lost and this will make the ham taste dull.

The secret to having a tasty ham is to ensure that a certain amount of fats remains in the ham to improve the taste and flavor.

3 — Covering ham improves the juiciness

Wrapping ham with aluminum foil or parchment paper when baking in the oven will prevent it from drying too soon.

When there is no cover, the steam and juices from the ham will escape the roasting pan, resulting in a dry and tasteless ham.

You want to keep the steam on the roasting pan and to do that, cover the ham with aluminum foil or parchment paper when baking.

How to cover ham with aluminum foil when baking?

Place the ham in a roasting pan
Tear of an appropriate piece of foil
Lay the aluminum foil on top of the ham
Fold the edges of the aluminum foil around the edges of the roasting pan to ensure it's quite sealed

When covering ham in a roasting pan, ensure that you don't cover it completely. Allow some steam to escape to prevent too much increase of pressure in the roasting pan.

What can I use instead of aluminum foil to cover my ham?

Parchment paper:
Parchment paper can be used as a substitute for aluminum foil for covering ham in a roasting pan, and it's quite a better option than aluminum foil.

This is due to the fact that, unlike aluminum foil, it won't change the taste of your ham because of aluminum leakage.

When you use parchment paper ensure that you don't cook your ham at higher temperatures to avoid burning.
Oven bag:
Just like parchment paper, an oven bag doesn't leach any substance into the food(ham). So it's a better option compared to foil.

How to place the ham in the oven?

1 — Firstly place ham in a roasting pan and cover it

Lay a pan with an aluminum foil or roasting pan, and then place ham on top of the foil.
Finally cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper to keep the ham moist.

2 — Take the roasting pan with the ham into the oven

Position the oven rack on the lower third of the oven. After that, preheat the oven to about 330°F; this should take about 15 minutes.
After this, place the roasting pan with the ham on the oven rack and let it bake until fully cooked.

When baking ham, don't place it on an oven rack without a roasting pan, or else the fats will dribble onto the heating element. To avoid this, the ham should be in a roasting pan.

Summary

Aluminum foil covering will prevent ham from drying up during cooking. This will ensure that the ham is juicy and moist.

Covering ham also improves the taste and flavor because it keeps the molecules that give the ham its taste from leaving the roasting pan. This will ensure that these molecules coexist with the ham, and when you uncover the ham, you'll smell the nice aroma of the ham.

If you don't cover the ham when baking, it can burn. So make sure that you keep the ham covered when baking.