My New Favorite Ham Recipe

Easter is one of the holidays that I host for my family and I have the menu down pat…At least, I thought I did!  Not that anyone has complained, but there will definitely be a few changes to the menu this next Easter!

For one thing – no more spiral cut ham.  Why? Because, upon trying out a new thing or two on the Cook’s brand bone-in butt end ham (6.4 pounds) I recently picked up on sale, I am realizing that the spiral cut, while making serving easier, is not conducive to keeping all of the moisture and flavor in the meat.

I actually had a lot of fun with this ham.

Yes – those are pineapple rings.  So 50’s.  🙂  I did the crisscross scoring, poured a bit of gingerale over it, stuck a bunch of cloves in and added the pineapple slices, mixed about 1/4 cup brown sugar with the canned pineapple liquid and poured that over it all, and finished up with freshly grated nutmeg (1/4 tsp) along with some cinnamon (1 tsp) and ginger powder (1 scant tsp). I am guestimating on the measurements I used…Click HERE for the link to the original recipe from which I was working.

After 3 hours at 325 covered tightly with foil:

Once removing from the oven, I lifted the rack and spooned the liquid in the pan over it and let it sit, loosely tented in the foil, for about 1/2 an hour or so before transferring to the carving board.

I should have take a picture of it after it was carved.  It looked as moist and tasty as it tasted.  I was afraid that I had overdone the spices, etc. but this was just wonderful.

I served it with roasted yukon gold potato chunks and an amazing sweet potato and red cabbage (!?) recipe that totally rocked.  Click HERE for that recipe. And, here is the regular potato recipe:

I cut the potatoes into approximately 2 inch chunks and started them  1 1/2 hours into the ham baking process so they would have 90 minutes at the 325 degrees.  Basically, I just cut potatoes into 2 inch chunks, toss with a bit of olive oil, freshly ground pepper, and salt, and add maybe 1/3 – 1/2 cup liquid (in this case, liquid from the ham that was already part-way cooked)  cover tightly and bake until soft. Then (optional) continue baking uncovered until more crisp on the outside.

Along with switching to this ham type and recipe, I am thinking I will also replace the baked mashed potatoes I have been serving on Easter with roasted potato chunks.  Always good to make a change before one gets too stuck in tradition.  🙂