Baked Country Ham Recipes

COUNTRY HAM

Steps:

• Unwrap ham and scrub off any surface mold (if you hung in a sack for 6 months you'd have mold too). Carefully remove hock with hand saw. (If this idea makes you eye your first aid kit, ask your butcher to do it. But make sure you keep the hock, it's the best friend collard greens ever had.)
• Place ham in cooler and cover with clean water. (As long as it's not too dirty you can use what southerners call the "hose pipe"). Stash the cooler in the bushes. If it's summer, throw in some ice. If it's freezing out, keep the cooler inside. Change the water twice a day for two days turning the ham each time.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Place ham in a large disposable turkey-roasting pan and add enough Dr. Pepper to come about halfway up the side of the ham. Add pickle juice if you've got it and tent completely with heavy-duty foil. Cook for 1/2 hour then reduce heat to 325 degrees F, and cook another 1 1/2 hours.
• Turn the ham over, insert an oven safe thermometer (probe-style is best) and cook another 1 1/2 hours, or until the deepest part of the ham hits 140 degrees F (approximately 15 to 20 minutes per pound total).
• Let rest 1/2 hour then slice paper-thin. Serve with biscuits or soft yeast rolls.
• Cooks note: Even after soaking, country ham is quite salty, so thin slicing is mandatory. If you're a bacon fan, however, cut a thicker (1/4-inch) slice and fry it up for breakfast.

BAKED COUNTRY HAM

Steps:

• The afternoon before you plan to serve the ham, fill a very large kettle or pot or your sink with water. Soak ham 4 to 8 hours to lose some of the saltiness; change the water 2 or 3 times, if possible. Rinse well, and scrape off any mold or green rind.
• Wrap ham well in aluminum foil. Place on a baking sheet. At 7 p.m. the night before you plan to serve the ham, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Place the wrapped ham in a large roasting pan filled with 1 inch of water, and bake for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven, but do not open the door. At 10 P.M., turn the oven back on to 500 degrees. Bake the ham for 15 minutes more. Turn off the oven, but do not open the door. Leave the ham in the closed oven overnight.
• Remove ham from the oven, then remove the aluminum foil. Using a very sharp knife, trim the rind and all the fat from the ham. Serve the ham warm or at room temperature; cut with a ham-slicing knife into very thin slivers.

BAKED COUNTRY HAM

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Place ham in a heavy roasting pan.
• To make the glaze, mince garlic in a food processor.
• Add remaining ingredients; process until smooth.
• Pour glaze over ham and bake 1 hour, until ham is fully heated and glaze is well browned.
• Serve hot or at room temperature.

HOW TO COOK A COUNTRY HAM

Steps:

• Scrub ham thoroughly with a stiff brush.
• Place ham in large pot or pan--even a cooler will work. Cover it completely with water and allow to soak for 24 hours, (discard water).
• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Put ham in large roaster fat side up and again cover completely with water. place in oven on lowest shelf and bake for 2 hours. Turn ham to other side and cook another 2 hours. It takes 4 to 41/2 hours in all or 15 to 18 minutes per pound for a good tender ham.
• Remove ham from oven, but leave in water overnight (do NOT refrigerate).
• The next day preheat oven to 425°F.
• Remove and discard ham skin. Sprinkle fat with ground cloves.
• Combine sugar with enough vinegar to make a paste and brush on ham. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes; let rest for 1 hour out of the oven, then slice and serve.

CIDER-BAKED COUNTRY HAM

Steps:

• Place ham in a Dutch oven or large kettle. Add cider, peppercorns and bay leaf. Add enough water just to cover; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour., Drain, reserving 3 cups cooking liquid; discard peppercorns and bay leaf. Remove skin from ham if desired; score the surface with shallow cuts, making diamond shapes. Insert whole cloves in the center of each diamond. Combine applesauce, horseradish and mustard; rub over ham., Place ham on a rack in shallow roasting pan; pour reserved liquid into pan. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 1 hour or until a thermometer reads 140°. Remove from the oven; cover with foil and let stand for 10-15 minutes before slicing.

BAKED COUNTRY HAM

Steps:

• Do not soak ham! First remove the hock, then skin and trim the ham to fit a large roasting pan. Scrub the exterior, leaving as much fat beneath the skin as possible. This helps remove the salt from an overly salty ham and imparts special flavor to the cured meat.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees
• To bake ham in a crust, assemble dry ingredients and enough of the 2 cups of water to make a soft, spreadable dough - like a soft biscuit. Place the ham in roaster on a rack, skin side up. Spread the dough over the skin side of the ham. Bake for about 3 hours uncovered.
• When the time is up, remove the crust and discard. After ham cools, remove it to a cutting board for deboning. Many like their ham served cold, but I enjoy a warm ham with any meal.