Ham

After college, I started a personal tradition of making a ham at least once every year.  The first year, I researched a bunch of recipes and combined them all together.  The ham turned out terrible.  It was nearly black in color and fell apart in a manner similar to a dry pot roast.  I ate it anyway, but vowed to find a better ham recipe.

If you've known me for any length of time, you know that pork products are my favorite.  I don't eat them too much, but I joke with my sister occasionally about my recent ideal of a potential 'vegan except for ham' mentality.

No post about ham would be complete without sharing a song written by a friend.  Here is a link to a video of a friend singing a song about ham.  ;)

Like many of my favorite recipes, this one is from Epicurious and is titled, "Old Fashioned Ham with Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze.  For the recipe, click here.

You only need a few standard ingredients to get yourself started.  The usual suspects:  honey, whole grain mustard, apple juice, and brown sugar.  And, of course, a raw ham.

I like to make an aluminum foil 'ham spaceship' so that as much liquid stays inside the ham as possible.  I typically get extra heavy duty aluminum foil and place it in a glass pyrex dish to support the ham.

My directions essentially mirror the directions on the website link, so feel free to just follow the recipe.

Add the apple juice (and the ham if you didn't already) to the spaceship.  Make as tight of a seal as you can.  Then bake for about 15 minutes per pound at 325 degrees.

When the ham comes out of the oven, take a sharp knife and cut off the rind.  Then, slice diamond shapes into the ham.  This will allow the glaze to seep in and flavor up some of the meat inside.  

Apply the mustard to the ham, then use your hands to smush the brown sugar into it.  Drizzle honey over the whole thing.  Put it back in the oven for about 30 minutes to help the glaze set and get a little dribbly.

Slice and serve!

Alternate directions:  In the past, I just combined all the ingredients in a bowl and dumped them over the ham and let them sit there for the whole cooking time.  This works well, but I think the directions as written on the recipe are best.  You may wish to mix up a bowl of the glaze just to pass around on the ham...it really is a very good sauce.

Very good served with quiche and other normal ham accompaniments.  I prefer this recipe for Madame Quiche's Quiche au Fromage, but with other things added in...just plain with cheese is a little drab.