Baked Ham



This is my revised version of my mom's holiday ham.  It is often so easy to modify a recipe.  For this one, I replaced the brown sugar (no better for you than any processed sugar) with honey, canned pineapple with fresh, and pasteurized orange juice from concentrate with freshly squeezed from an organic orange. 

 

It is hard to find a cured ham with a bone in it, that is not spiral cut, and that has not been injected with chemicals.  Look for local farmers and be cautious when buying hams - pigs eat anything (the garbage collectors of the earth) and were considered unclean animals, unfit to eat by the Jewish people in the Bible.  Thus the quality of ham you buy is very important.  Of course, this is true for any pork product you eat, whether it is bacon, lunch meat, pork loin or a whole ham.

This is the ham I purchased for our Christmas dinner.  As I said in that post, it was o.k., but I would like to find a source for more natural hams because this lists evaporated cane syrup in its ingredient list.  I did not look at the ingredient list when I purchased it since I was in a hurry and waited until December 23rd to buy my ham.  It is SO important to get in the habit of always reading the ingredient labels - I hope you are working on this Week 3 weekly challenge.  I am.  I have recommitted myself this year to make this challenge a habit even when shopping at grocery stores that typically carry better quality products such as Whole Foods, Sprouts, Trader Joe's or Natural Grocer.

 

Ingredients:

One cured ham, butt or shank, any size that is not spiral sliced and which has a bone still in it.

One fresh pineapple, cut into chunks or rings

One organic orange (optional)

A handful of whole cloves

4 Tbl pure honey

You also need:

Toothpicks

A heavy, sturdy roasting pan

Heavy duty aluminum foil

 

Directions:

Place ham in the roasting pan on the rack.  Score the ham into a grid 1" to 1 1/2" (just through the outer rind layer).  Stick whole cloves in ham every 2" to 2 1/2".  Then place pineapple chunks or slices on top side with toothpicks as shown in the photo.

Mix basting sauce:  Pour pineapple juice left over from cut up pineapple (the juice that will be left in the bowl in which you have placed the cut chunks), typically about 1/4 cup into a small glass container.  Juice one orange and add that juice to the pineapple juice.  Stir in honey, and slowly drizzle about half of the mixture all over the ham.  Cover the ham carefully (so you don't poke the toothpicks through the aluminum foil), and bake in the oven at 325 °F to 350 °F for about 1 1/2 hours.  Baste once about half way through bake time with the rest of the basting mix.  (If you are using a ham that has not been already cured, be sure to cook it thoroughly, an internal temperature of at least 160 °F.)  

 



Remove from oven and allow to rest 15 to 30 minutes before cutting.  Serve cut ham immediately and enjoy the leftovers either hot or cold.  You can freeze leftover chunks and use in recipes like chicken sausage gumbo in place of the sausage.