Baked Country Ham
Instructions:
This soaked, glazed, and roasted ham is a rare treat worth
the extra work, which is sporadic and spans out over the
course of a couple days.
One 12- to 15-pound Virginia or other country ham
6 cups assorted chopped aromatic vegetables and
herbs or scraps—onions, carrots, parsnips, celery,
and parsley, for example
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
Several allspice berries
2 tablespoons cider or other vinegar
4 cloves, plus additional (optional) cloves for scoring
ham
1 cup orange marmalade or apricot or peach
preserves
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, or more to taste
2 cups or more dry apple cider or white wine (optional)
MAKES: 15 or more servings
TIME: 36 hours, largely unattended
- If the ham is too big to fit into your biggest pot, saw off the shank. Any saw will do; just be patient. (Use the shank for soup; it will be wonderful.) Scrub the ham with a brush under running water, then soak it in cold water to cover for 24 hours, changing the water once or twice.
- Put the ham, vegetables, peppercorns, allspice, vinegar, and 4 cloves in the pot and cover with fresh water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 2 hours. Cool in its liquid for at least another 2 hours.
- Drain the ham, discarding the cooking liquid. Skin the ham, then score the fatty layer in a diamond pattern. Insert a clove into each diamond if you like.
- About 1 hour before you’re ready to serve, heat the oven to 400 F. Put the ham on a rack in a roasting pan and, in a small saucepan, heat the marmalade or preserves over low heat until they thin slightly.
- Stir in 1 tablespoon or more mustard. Spoon this mixture all over the ham and bake until the outer layer is crisp and brown, about 30 minutes. If you want pan juices with which to top the ham (not necessary—it will be fine with no more than good mustard), add 1/2 cup of cider or wine to the bottom of the pan at the beginning of roasting and whenever it threatens to become dry.
- Transfer the ham to a platter. To make pan juices, put the roasting pan on 1 or 2 burners over high heat.
- Add 1 cup of liquid to that already in the pan and cook, stirring and scraping, until the liquid has been reduced by about half and has thickened slightly. Carve the ham and serve with pan juices, mustard, or both.
- Baked Wet-Cured Ham.
- Allow about 10 minutes of cooking time per pound. Skip steps 1 and 2. Score and stud the ham the ham with cloves as in Step 3 if you like. Heat the oven to 350 F and proceed with the recipe.