Making the Perfect Ham

This year, we started celebrating Easter a week early by making this ham … and, for dessert, we were lucky to have a whole collection of delectable chocolates, cookies, cute little Easter cake pops and fancy chocolate covered strawberries from Shari’s Berries … aren’t they gorgeous?

In the springtime, I can’t wait for the Easter feast simply for the HAM. I’m a ham purist … I prefer to let the true flavor of the ham shine through, rather than drowse it in sugary goo. Ham on its own is a masterpiece … it really needs no glaze or garnishment. When I did a search on the internet for ham recipes, all I could find were the glazed recipes. You’ve got it all wrong, you glazey people! You don’t need to DO that awful gooey stuff to your beautiful ham to make it good. In fact, the making of a perfect Easter ham is incredibly simple. This is how it’s done in my family, and it turns out perfect every time.

Making a perfect ham starts at the store. This is where, honestly, I called my dad because he has bought many more hams than I have. He says it’s best to buy a shank ham rather than a butt ham. Unfortunately the hams I found in the store were not labelled (or at least I couldn’t find the info if they were!) I could find no mention of which body part the ham came from. I had to choose based on looks. Choose a ham that has more meat than fat. Pretty much all the hams you find at the store (in the US) are city hams that are pre-cooked, but there are many varieties of those. I prefer the bone-in hams because I think they have better flavor, and NOT spiralized because the spiralizing tends to dry out the meat when you cook it. Trust me, it’s not hard at all to slice a ham.

How much ham do you need? If you’re going with a bone-in ham (which I do recommend), plan on 1/3 – 1/2 lb. per person. So for 6 people you’d need at least 3 lbs. or for 12 people, you’ll need at least 6 lbs.

Once you’ve picked out your ham, then you need a roasting pan that will fit the ham. I, unfortunately, do not own a roasting pan big enough for the ham I chose, but luckily I have a Swiss Diamond square saute pan that it fit nicely in. The lid, of course, did not fit over the ham, though, so I covered it with an aluminum foil tent. Once you’ve figured that out, well, that’s the hardest part. You’re not going to believe how easy this is.

I gotta stop to talk about the berries for a second. The truly fun thing about being a food blogger is every once in a while, someone contacts me and wants to send me something in exchange for a few photos or a recipe or product review. I was so thrilled when Shari’s Berries contacted me … I couldn’t think of anything I’d like more than berries and chocolate (well, except for a sun room, a hot tub and some new living room furniture, but I’m not holding my breath on anybody giving me any of THAT!), so of course I said yes. We got the pleasure of enjoying an early Easter dinner along with some very delectable (and adorable!) desserts.

We enjoyed our perfect ham and then reveled in the strawberries … loved the caramels and chocolates … the cake pops are ADORABLE and decadent and rich, a dense cake that is almost like a truffle. It’s good quality chocolate and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to sample them.

Making the Perfect Ham

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

• Yield: depends on the ham

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 ham (or half ham), bone in, NOT spiral cut

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 275 F. Put the ham in a roasting pan and cover it loosely with foil.
2. Bake the ham at 275 for at least 20 minutes per pound. My half ham was about 10 lbs. so that would be 200 minutes or 3 1/3 hours. I roasted it for about 4-ish.
3. Remove the ham from the oven about an hour before serving time and let it sit, covered, while you prep the rest of the meal.
4. Put the ham on a serving tray and slice it up and enjoy! Don’t forget to save the bone for soup.

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Notes

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

© Copyright 2015, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.

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Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/3 - 1/2 lb per person

Here’s the knife I used to slice my perfect ham–it works wonderfully because the blade is a little bendy and perfectly sharp. I love the feel and balance of a CIA knife and I own several of them. They are a pleasure to cut with.

This recipe was shared at Treasure Box Tuesday, Tuesday’s Table, The Weekend Re-Treat, Thursday Favorite Things, Foodie Friday DIY, Freedom Friday with All my Bloggy Friends, Let’s Get Real, Moonlight & Mason Jars and Hearth & Soul Bloghop.