Baked Ham

My sister raised pigs a while back, and she'd given us a ham that needed to be used. I probably should have saved this for a party or something, but I was curious to try my hand at a ham, which I'd never cooked. Huge pieces of meat are always daunting, because I never know how to cook them. But my husband likes ham, so I figured he could always eat the leftovers on sandwiches.

Fanny Farmer's baked ham recipe follows.


Put ham in shallow baking dish, fat side up.
Bake at 325 until 150 degrees when tested with a meat thermometer (my meat thermometer said 175, so I cooked it long enough to get it to 175, since I'm paranoid about eating pork anyway).
To glaze, cut skin off and score the fat in a diamond pattern and glaze.
Put whole cloves in each diamond.
Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.
Baste several times while cooking.
Remove from oven and let sit at least 15 mins before serving.

This recipe was tough, since I had a big piece of a pig that was cured as ham. I didn't have the cone-shaped thing that I've seen in stores. I've never actually eaten a real ham before. So I wasn't sure how to do it with a rectangular piece of ham. But I followed directions as best as I could. My ham did not have a skin, nor did it have a 'fat side.' So I just put it in a pan.

I did not turn oven to 400, because I somehow missed that in the directions. I left it on 350 for about 2-2.5 hrs, glazing about halfway through.

Glaze recipe:
Mix 1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. honey, maple syrup, cider, vinegar, or pineapple or orange juice.
Ground or fresh mustard

I used 1/4 c. honey, 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar, and 1 tsp. ground mustard. I didn't want all that sugar on it, esp. since I was planning to use the leftovers. I also wanted pineapple with the ham, so I stuck a few pineapple rings on it after glazing it. There is a basting sauce recipe, too, but I just basted with the juices in the pan from the meat and the glaze that had run off into the pan, since it was much the same as the basting sauce recipe and I think the recipe must have been for a much bigger ham than our slab of meat.

Optional basting sauce:
Mix 1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. ground mustard
1/2 c. vinegar
OR
1 c. honey
1 c. orange juice

It turned out very good, actually. It took forever to cook, and heated up the house A LOT, so I wouldn't make this again in summer. I just didn't know if it would keep until the holiday season, and we are never at home on Christmas anyway. But it would be much better to heat up the house by baking for 3 hours in the winter!

Look at all that yummy fat.

Anyway, all in all it was good and hammy. I wish I'd had a big heaping pile of vegetables to eat with it instead of just extra pineapple rings, but hey, we can't all be perfect! Maybe next time.

Look for more ham recipes, which I'm sure I'll make when my husband gets tired of eating 2 lbs. of leftover ham!