Yes, Ham Glaze Is Kosher, And It’s Certified By The OU

Image by basiliberia/reddit
The Internet was abuzz today when someone posted an image to the “Judaism” subreddit of an OU-kosher-certified ham glaze from Boar’s Head.
The prohibition against eating pig is one of the most well-known of the laws of kashruth. Every Jew, kosher-observant or not, knows this. Every Muslim, who are also barred from eating pig, knows this. Even ignorant non-Jews, who mistakenly believe that Jews hide their horns under skullcaps, know pig isn’t kosher.
To be fair, it’s just a glaze meant for ham — similar to rubs or marinades for chicken and meat — and doesn’t actually contain any ham inside.
But it does beg the question: What was the OU thinking when certifying it?
Beyond the jarring name of “ham” next to the most well-known kosher certification, it’s certainly strange seeing a brand whose name so fully encapsulates that which isn’t kosher: A boar, which is a wild pig. Yet, according to the OU certification site, they certify over 100 Boar’s Head products.
The Boar’s Head products that the OU certifies are mostly pickles, condiments and cream cheese — all of which are unlikely to be filled with any pig meat (or fat). And it’s likely that those products are produced and manufactured in a completely different plant from its pig-based products.
What is funny, however, is that the OU renamed, by omission, the ham glaze product in question on their site. Instead of calling it a “Sugar and Spice Ham Glaze,” they termed it “Sugar and Spice Glaze,” omitting the “ham” modifier.
In other words, the OU understands that while this product may be perfectly kosher and pig-free, the word “ham” really throws a wrench into the certification process.
And Boar’s Head isn’t the only company to produce kosher ham glaze. Mrs. Schlorer’s, a mayo and condiment brand manufactured by the Schlorer Delicatessen Company in Philadelphia, also produces a kosher ham glaze under the auspices of the OU. (Interestingly, the OU does include the word “ham” in its product description.)
This also isn’t the first time consumers have noticed that many brands produce kosher ham glaze. A cursory Twitter search brought up tweets from as early as 2010 discussing this strange phenomenon.
Brett Henderson wrote, around 7 years ago:
Interesting. Reese “ham glaze” is in the kosher section of Raley’s. Tempting the faithful?
— Brett Henderson (@emptysandwich) September 24, 2010
In 2011, alltumbledown tweeted:
Have no fear: the ham glaze is kosher. http://instagr.am/p/IzbVF/
— alltumbledown (@alltumbledown) July 29, 2011
By the beginning of 2012, Darren Huckey tweeted the same Boar’s Head Ham Glaze product (with different packaging)”
RT @Jeffdude: Oh you (OU) kosher certified Ham Glaze. pic.twitter.com/t1uvIoko
— Darren Huckey (@monstordh) January 10, 2012
Then, toward the end of 2012, Cognitive_Diss tweeted:
Come over and taste my ham glaze, baby. It’s Kosher.
— ??? (@Cognitive_Diss) November 22, 2012
We’ll glaze our ham to that.
Michelle Honig is a writer at the Forward. Contact her at [email protected]. Find her on Instagram and Twitter.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Opinion In Trump’s war against campus antisemitism, hate the tactics but don’t ignore the problem
-
Yiddish כ׳בענק נאָך די וועלטלעכע ייִדן וואָס האָבן אָפּגעריכט אַ טראַדיציאָנעלן סדר Longing for those secular Jews who led a traditional seder
מײַן פֿעטער יונה האָט נישט געהיט שבת און כּשרות אָבער בײַם אָפּריכטן דעם סדר האָט ער געקלונגען ווי אַ פֿרומער ייִד
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.