Easter is coming. And what does that mean? Another holiday to cook gobs and gobs of food for: my favorite kind of holiday.
For some reason, ham is the traditional Easter meat. Growing up, I don’t ever really remember having ham on Easter, though; I think we had either a turkey or a whole roasted chicken. So ham was never really one of those food items that I grew up liking. Well, that and the only ham we did eat when we ate ham was the canned ham with a layer of goo gel around it. It makes me shudder just thinking about it.
Later in life, we discovered honey baked ham. And that kind of ham I’m completely ok with. Last Christmas I decided to finally undertake making my own ham. So I researched a bunch of different recipes, and in the manner I cook best with, I created my own recipe based upon my research findings. And believe you me, it was gooooood. Even my brother-in-law, who absolutely positively refuses to eat ham, liked it. Thus, it promptly was added to my recipe box.
Don’t throw the ham bone away. There are so many great recipes that you can make with a ham bone, such as split pea soup or baked beans. After you finish eating, simply carve the rest of the meat off the bone and cut into little chunks. Store ham chunks in a freezer safe ziploc bag, about 1-2 cups per bag, until ready to use. Take ham bone and place into a large freezer safe ziploc bag, and freeze that until ready for future use.
In my opinion, and based upon my style of cooking, the key to making this recipe is to eyeball all the ingredients. That way you can customize it to your taste buds. (Note: This was more than enough rub and sauce for a 7lb ham, so feel free to use a bigger ham — like 10lbs — without making adjustments.)
Ingredients:
1 ham (I used a 7lb hickory smoked ham shank with bone)
Rub
2 T. brown sugar
(use measurements of the following ingredients based upon your ratio preference to the brown sugar and each other. With the sugar being the greatest amount, i used cinnamon and paprika as the second greatest amounts, then nutmeg, then cloves, then cayenne.)
ground cinnamon
paprika
ground cloves
ground nutmeg
cayenne
(i think some ground dry mustard would be good next time!)
Glaze
1/2 c. whiskey
1 c. honey
1/2 c. blackstrap molasses (cut back to 1/4 for a less molassesy flavor)
1 T. Dijon mustard
2 T. butter, melted
juice of 1 small orange, or of 1/3 large orange*
Instructions:
1) Score ham in a criss-cross pattern, about 1 inch apart and ½ inch deep.
2) Combine rub ingredients into small bowl. Rub all over the ham. Place ham into baking dish (roasting pan or a 9×13 casserole dish), cut side down and refrigerate. Let marinade for at least a few hours.
Preheat oven to 325°.
3) After ham has finished marinading, combine glaze ingredients in a bowl. Pour over ham. Create a foil tent over ham.
4) Bake at 325° until center of ham reaches 140°, basting every 20 minutes. (My 7lb ham took about 2 hours to cook.)
*try changing up the flavoring to apple, pomegranate, or pineapple juice, or even apricot preserves, although you would need to add a bit liquid to the preserves to make it a glaze consistency.
