HAM! (not spiral sliced, we have knives!!)

Pet peeve time.  It drives me crazy that suddenly the only ham I can find, easily, for Easter or Christmas or thanksgiving or whatever I want a ham for, is a spiral sliced ham.  Am I the only one who realizes if you cut meat THEN heat it, it'll be dry?  I have never, ever, had decent, moist, juicy, spiral sliced ham.  If you make one, then I apologize, but in my extensive experience, nope, they're dry and weirdly chemical tasting.  I like a smoked ham, a regular old ham.  (truth be told I prefer a RAW ham but yeah, try finding that in Texas)  SO, I'm here to share how I cook a regular old ham for Easter.

TRACY'S BAKED HAM

Get a smoked ham, I like Smithfield but get what you can, get what you like.  I am a firm believer in buying the biggest ham/roast/steak you can because if you're going to cook it anyway, you might as well cook the biggest you can for leftovers and the freezer.  It's shocking how much extra food you get from a slightly bigger piece of meat.  Go big or go home :)

PART 1

Line an enormous pan with tin foil, put about an inch of water in the foil,
Put the ham, flat side down, in the foil and water,
Wrap tight
BAKE at 350 for about 10 mins per lb
This ham is 10 lbs so I'll cook it about an hour and 40 mins.  I cook it less than on the packet, which says 15mins/lb because I'm going to glaze and bake it again

  

PART 2

Preheat oven to 400
Open the foil and put the ham up on it's side.
IF you have the need, make decorative cuts in the ham, about 1/4 inch deep,
Slather ham with mustard, just use your favorite mustard, there's no rule here.
Sprinkle brown sugar on the mustard.
Put ham, open, back in the oven until it's beautiful
Slice, eat

LOOK!  :)  at the beauty shots.

The skin was sort of fatty today so I cut it off when it came out of the oven, 

  

then smear it with mustard and brown sugar, back into the oven till it's gorgeous

  

  

I didn't take any pics of the first cuts because I cant take pics and cut and there was no one to hold the camera.  Don't even get me started on that... anyway

Slice and eat.  Truly, it's that easy.  There is a easy way to cut this piece of ham.  Put the ham on it's side and you can see a natural line by the bone that if you stick your knife in, and run it along the bone, will remove the whole half of it and you can put it on a board and slice it beautifully.  Flip the ham over and remove the other pieces and do the same.  Save the bone and bits you don't want to eat for stock and split pea soup.  Throw them in a bag and into the freezer to use later if you're not in a soup mood.

I cook all the vegetables, except the green ones, the day before so my "big cook" consists of this ham and some broccoli  The scalloped potatoes, swede, carrots are all popped in the oven to warm up when the ham comes out and the rolls, well, I made those yesterday.  OH and I made individual pavlovas which baked this am and are currently sitting in the oven cooling down.  I'll move them to the laundry room to wait till we need them :)

The ham is moist, tender, flavorful and just lovely.  Now, to see if I can save enough of it from THEM to at least get a few sandwiches and a good feed of egg benedict tomorrow......

Happy Easter to you from me x

/enjoy

tracy