Easter Recipe #1: Whiskey Molasses Glazed Ham

 

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.

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The Best BBQ Spare Ribs

 

 A couple years ago, after my husband and I bought our barbecue, we decided to break it in with spare ribs.  Of course, we didn’t know anything about barbecuing spare ribs, like how long it takes until they are so perfectly done that the meat falls right off the bone (apparently it takes hours and hours). So our first attempt was a miserable failure.  A few weeks ago we were watching an episode of Sam the Cooking Guy, a show local to the San Diego area, and he made these ribs that looked to die for.  About a week or so later we were grocery shopping and passed the rib section of the meat counter.  And our memories harkened back to that episode of Sam the Cooking Guy.  All we had to do was wordlessly lock eyes, and my husband grabbed the best looking rack of the bunch.  The ingredient list is my own creation. But I followed Sam’s vinegar-baked methodology, which takes considerably less time to cook than the regular way. 

 

Ingredients:

brown sugar
paprika
chili powder
ground mustard
red pepper flakes
cinnamon
nutmeg
white vinegar (the cheap kind)
barbecue sauce (plain, unflavored)
honey or apricot jam

 

Instructions:

1)  Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Rub into both sides of ribs.  Allow to marinade in the frig 3-5 hours.

2)  Preheat oven to 400°F.  Place ribs, in a single layer, in a jellyroll pan or casserole dish. Pour vinegar into dish until filled about 1 to 1½ inches up the side. Cover tightly with foil. Cook at 400° for an hour and a half. About one hour through, check the level of the vinegar to make sure it hasn’t all evaporated. If it has, add more vinegar.

3)  Right before ribs are done, combine barbecue sauce and honey or jam in a bowl. Heat your barbecue grill to medium heat. Place ribs on grill, then baste the face-up side with barbecue sauce. Grill for about 3 minutes, then flip ribs over. Baste more sauce on the face-up side. Grill for 3 minutes. Flip one more time and cook another minute longer.  Remove from grill and serve immediately.

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