Glazing

The main kinds

Sugar glaze on meat

Honey, marmalade, maple, brown sugar with mustard. For ham, ribs, duck. Goes on in the last fifteen to thirty minutes.

Butter-and-stock glaze on vegetables

Vegetables cooked in stock, butter and a little sugar until the liquid reduces to a syrup that coats them. A cooking method as much as a finish.

Egg wash on pastry

Beaten egg brushed on before baking. Gives shine and colour; whole egg is the standard, yolk alone is richest, white alone gives shine with less colour.

Apricot glaze on a tart

Warmed sieved jam brushed over fruit. Sets clear, tastes of little, and stops the fruit drying.

Sugar syrup on a cake

Brushed on while warm. Keeps it moist and adds flavour.

Reduction glaze

A sauce reduced until sticky, spooned over at the end. Balsamic, soy, a meat jus.

Glazing a joint or ribs

The timing rule is the whole technique.

1. Cook the meat almost completely first, unglazed. This is the part people get wrong.
2. Make the glaze — usually something sweet, something salty or savoury, something acidic and often mustard or spice.
3. Reduce it slightly in a pan if it is thin, so it clings rather than running off.
4. Turn the oven up for the glazing stage.
5. Brush a thin layer on, return it to the oven for five to ten minutes, and repeat two or three times. Thin layers built up give a better finish than one thick one.
6. Watch it constantly at this stage. Sugar goes from glossy to burnt in a couple of minutes.
7. Rest the meat and spoon any glaze from the tin over it at the table.

Glazing vegetables, which is different

• Cook them in the glaze rather than adding it at the end. Stock, butter and a little sugar in a wide pan.
• Just enough liquid to come part way up. Too much and the vegetables overcook before it reduces.
• Simmer with a lid until nearly tender, then take the lid off and let the liquid reduce.
• Shake or turn towards the end, so the syrup coats every surface.
• Stop while the glaze is syrupy, not when it has gone. A second too long and it caramelises to a stuck brown crust.
• Carrots, turnips, shallots, radishes, chestnuts and baby onions all suit this.
• A squeeze of lemon at the end stops it being cloying.

Why glazes burn

Sugar caramelises well below the temperature meat needs

So a glaze applied at the start of a two-hour roast has an hour and a half to burn.

Honey burns faster than sugar

It contains fructose, which caramelises at a lower temperature.

Marmalade and jam glazes burn readily

And taste excellent, which is why they go on late.

A thick layer burns on the outside

While staying wet underneath. Thin layers built up work better.

Dripping into the tin

Sugar in the tin burns and smokes. Line it, or add a splash of water.

If it catches

Cover with foil and continue. The glaze is done even if the meat is not.

Common questions