Well this year, like any other, has been filled with a little bit of stress, a little bit of holiday cheer, and a little bit (or a lot) of eating. If I do a tally, I’ve had 2 turkey dinners and 2 ham dinners and each time as scrumptious as the other. The first ever German style Christmas Market was debuted in Vancouver, and I think it was very successful! Definitely nothing like the real thing, but it was fun, they had great Gluehwein (mulled wine) and awesome bratwursts!
Oh I love the holidays. I think my favourite thing about Christmas (other than spending time with family, opening presents and all that shenanigans) is Ham. Never do you really get a chance to make a gigantic ham and get away with it. Summer? Too hot. Fall? Well we just had Turkey at Thanksgiving… Spring? People are well under way with their new resolutions to even think about eating something as fatty as ham! So Christmas. It’s the one opportunity to have it.
So, this (like most other things on my blog so it seems) is another first timer. I’ve never made ham before, I’ve always just been there to eat it! I realize now that I screwed up… in that, I had ordered a pork roast, and not a bone in ham. Which is a HUGE difference, but not really …at the same time. They’re both pork therefore the same species, and usually a roast is from the same part (butt/leg) as a ham, but ham… has already been smoked and it has the bone in it already, which makes the meat so incredibly scrumptious and juicy with all the marinating glaze caramelizing on the surface. The roast, same thing pretty much, but you don’t get the smoky flavour and the consistency of the meat isn’t like a ham (which is more dense) but is like… a pork chop. Does this make sense? Well, I hope so.
So this is a simplified Martha Stewart recipe, where I follow the same general ingredients, but I don’t follow the method to the T. You might call this half-assing but I call it efficiency. This is the way my M&M family (2nd family) make it every year, and they had started talk about just having turkey instead of ham, so I decided to make it at home for our family dinner… but as it turns out. They made a turkey AND a ham this year! BAM!
The Christmas Dinner Spread…. MMmmmmmmm….. Vegetarian Stuffing, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, Brussels sprouts, turkey gravy, layered salad, cranberry sauce, Turkey, Ham AND a sausage and giblet stuffing… It doesn’t get any better than this!
For those of you that cringe at the thought of meat… or pork or whatever: a) You can do the same glazing technique to anything! Such as, root vegetables, Tofu chunks, Seitan, Tempeh, etc. b) For people that don’t eat pork, use it on chicken, or duck, or quail or what have you! Experiment. (Duck would be soooo good!)
Ingredients:
- 1 whole smoked ham, 10-14 pounds (as big or as little as you like), bone in and rind on.
- OR: in my case, I used a roast that was around 10 pounds
- OR: Use Tofu, Seitan, Tempeh, Root Vegetables, Chicken, Duck, Beef?
- 1 cup + 1/2 cup Apple Cider
- 2 Tbsp Whole Cardamom Pods
- 1 Tbsp Whole Fennel Seeds
- 2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon Ground Ginger
- 3/4 cup Dijon Mustard
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Light Corn Syrup
- 2 Tbsp Unsulfured Blackstrap Molasses
- 2 to 3 Tbsp Whole Cloves
1. Leave out the Ham, or Roast out at room temperature for an hour or so until the meat has the chill taken off of it. Line a baking dish or a casserole dish with heavy aluminum foil to make it easier to clean the dish afterward. The glaze can cook and sometimes burn onto the ceramic/glass. Wash and pat the meat dry with a clean paper towel and pour a cup of apple cider over top. Stick it in a preheated 325 degree F oven. You can score the rind to have it more easily removable later, but not totally necessary. Mine came from the butcher already scored! yay!
2. In the mean time, toast the Cardamom, and Fennel until fragrant in a hot skillet (a few minutes). Remove from heat and bash it up with either a food processor or a mortar and pestle. Grind it up to a fine-ish powder.
3. Pour it into a bowl and add the Ground Ginger and Ground Cinnamon. Add the brown sugar, molasses, mustard, apple cider and corn syrup. Whisk all together to ensure there are no lumps and this should have a fairly thick consistency. If you don’t want to add as much sugar, supplement with agave syrup or honey.
4. After the roast/ ham’s been in the oven for about an hour and a half, the rind should be crisp and golden. This needs to be taken off, and either you eat it (it’s FULL of saturated animal fat! SO BAD for you, but soooo goood…) or you chuck it. Either carve it off with a sharp serrated knife, or it should come off easily with a pair of tongs.
5. Score the fat underneath the rind (the fat needs to stay on to ensure a moist roast/ham) in a diamond pattern about 2 inches wide. Slather with the mixture and try to get it into the grooves. Insert Whole Cloves into the intersection of each diamond, or less if you prefer. I drizzled with a little agave, and stuck it back in the oven.
6. After about 20 minutes, the roast/ham should have a wonderful glaze on it, Baste some more with the glaze. Stick it back in for another 25-30 minutes and the ham/roast should be done!
Note: The meat should never ever by basted with the pan juices because it will ruin the nice glaze you have going on. ONLY baste with the remaining spice/glaze mixture.
Let the whole thing rest for 30 minutes before carving. This ensures that the moisture doesn’t all spill out of the meat and it stays in to make it juicy. Once the fat and water molecules have calmed down after cooling a bit and resting, it will stay in the meat resulting in a beautifully flavoured, succulent reward!
So there you have it. My Christmas. I can’t believe it’s over because the lead up to it was chaotic! But it’s soooo worth the effort in the end. OOoaf… my pants are now too tight!
Looks delicious and melt in my mouth juicy! The caramelized outside made my mouth water. I think you made awesome use of your "screw-up meat," which doesn't look like a screw-up at all. My pot roast has never turned out looking as awesome as your did, so I will have to give yours a try!
ReplyDeleteI usually make my ham in the slow cooker, as it come out so tender and juicy and I LOVE how it cooks while I am at work. I come home to a wonderful aroma and meals for the whole week. I then make split pea soup using the bone and add some bacon for added smokiness(gasp). It is also so economical as we get so many meals from this one piece of meat.
I gotta go eat now! You have made me so hungry. Charisma