Use Apple Cider Vinegar For A Tangy, Tender Honey Mustard Ham Steak

If you enjoy the flavor of honey-glazed ham but don't need to feed a crowd, recipe developer Ting Dalton suggests cooking honey-glazed ham steak instead. She also mixes mustard into her glaze since mustard and honey go so well together, and both ingredients go well with the mild, fatty meat. As Dalton says of the dish, "The saltiness of the ham is tempered delightfully with this tangy, sweet sticky glaze."

This simple honey mustard ham steak recipe, which makes just two servings, only requires five ingredients. In addition to the ham steaks, mustard, and honey, you'll be using brown sugar as well as apple cider vinegar. The reason for the latter's inclusion is that, as Dalton explains, "its acidity and tanginess really complement the sweetness of the honey and sugar and add a real depth of flavor." What's more, vinegar is known for its tenderizing properties, which is why it's so often used as a way to marinate meat.

What if you're all out of apple cider vinegar, or you just don't like the stuff? Its fruity flavor is not to everyone's taste, after all. In this case, you have a number of options open to you. If you want to stick with a fruit-based acid, wine vinegar would be an obvious choice, although balsamic vinegar (which is also made from grapes) could also work quite well with honey and mustard, not to mention ham. If you want to make your glaze extra-sweet, though, you could use rice vinegar instead. Yet another idea is to opt for an infused vinegar as this could add yet another element to the flavor profile, whether it be that of garlic, herbs, or chiles.

Citrus juice is also a great vinegar alternative and a fruit-based one, at that. (Well, not fruit-based, since it actually is fruit.) While lemon could be a tasty choice since it goes so well with a wide variety of savory elements, orange juice would make the glaze even sweeter.