Christmas Ham

As apart of this blog I also want to write about dishes that I have prepared and cooked myself. I want to blog about this for the sake of collaboration and passing good recipes along. This entry is long overdue seeing how the title is Christmas ham. But, everybody said I should blog about my ham, and by everybody I mean Abbye and my parents. But, none the less I will proceed.

On christmas we had a big group of people over and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a pre-prepared ham, plus I have always really wanted to cook my own. When I cook I tend to go overboard with flavor and spice, but I call it being creative. I have to remember that my palette is broader than most. I really wanted to try an espresso chile glaze, but I sided against it because I wanted everyone to enjoy it.

Here is the ingredients you'll need

• 9-pound (or so) ham, bone-in, scored 1/4-inch deep in a diamond pattern
• 10-15 cinnamon sticks
• oranges, lemons, and limes cut into slices (to put on the cinnamon sticks)
• 10 bay leaves
• black pepper
• One 13-ounce jar orange marmalade
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• Pinch ground cloves

Here are the directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Place the ham, cut side down, in a large roasting pan. Insert the cinnamon sticks partially into the scored ham at even intervals. Skewer 1 orange slice 1 lime slice, and 1 lemon slice onto each cinnamon stick and push the slices down so that they fit snugly against the ham. Tuck the bay leaves around the fruit slices. Sprinkle the ham with the black pepper. Bake the ham, uncovered, until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 4-6 hours. Baste the ham with the glaze during the last hour of cooking.

Make the glaze when the ham first goes into the oven: Combine the marmalade, brown sugar, orange juice, water, hot sauce, ginger, and cloves in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook until mixture reduces to a glaze consistency and coats the back of a spoon. If you don't have ground cloves you can also stick whole cloves into the ham itself.

The best part of making this ham for me was scoring the ham in a diamond pattern. when the ham came out of the oven the scored edges were the perfect crispness and he hot sauce added just enough spice to the citrus. The ham was moist and tender and the citrus flavor was great. It also made for a good breakfast ham the next day. Needless to say it was fun to cook the ham and everyone loved it and it looked pretty goodtoo. Here are some pictures to look at.