An old recipe I developed years ago and just remembered. There aren’t any instructive photos unfortunately.
I’ve done hams before in the traditional honey/brown sugar/pineapple syrup sweet glaze, a cherry-portglaze, and a “city” ham with mustard and gingersnap crust. I wanted to take what I liked from each recipe.
I kept the cherries from the cherry-port glaze, but lost the port, and added a bit of wine, along with the spice of whole ground mustard from the city ham, and a bit of brown sugar to help make the glaze syrupy, I added a good bit of Dr. Pepper to the glaze. The mustard kept the ham from turning that predictable salty-sweet flavor, and gave it a bit of bite. The cherry/merlot/Dr. Pepper glaze reduced wonderfully into a thick sticky mess, which stuck to the ham, and began to caramelize in the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 smoked, non-spiral cut city ham
- 1/4 cup whole grain mustard
- 1/2 cup cherry preserves
- 1/2 cup dry red wine
- 1 cup Dr. Pepper
- 1 Tsp ground black pepper
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
Steps
Begin several hours in advance, by putting the ham (still shrink wrapped) in a bucket and covered with hot water and let sit for an hour or so. Replace the hot water when warm, and let sit for another few hours. This is to raise the internal temp of the ham and reduce cooking time later without drying the ham out.
Turn your oven to 250°F
When the ham is uniformly warm (use your temperature probe: ~ 70F – 80F or so), remove from water and plastic. Rinse ham and discard the pad covering the bone. Make thin cuts on the ham fat in the pattern of a diamond. This helps the ham stay flat while cooking, instead of curling up, and makes for easy removal of the fat later on when it’s glazed.
Put the warm ham in an oven bag, and stick your temperature probe into the center of the ham but not touching the bone. Place the hame on a baking tray cut side down. Bake until the internal temperature of the ham is about 115 F.
While the ham is cooking, mix the cherry preserves, merlot, and Dr. Pepper in a blender and blend until the cherries are not chunky. Be carefull as the Dr. Pepper will foam up when blended. Put the mixture in a small sauce pot, add 2 Tbsp brown sugar and black pepper, and stir over medium-low heat until reduced at least by half, or until syrupy.
Take the ham out of the oven (about 1-2 hours later), remove from bag, and place on a baking pan, or roasting pan cut side down. Remove the fat diamonds and excess fat from the ham. Brush or spread the mustard on the ham, and then rub (careful ’cause it’s hot) the 1/2 cup brown sugar over the ham and mustard.
Increase the oven to 300°F
Give the ham, a good basting with the glaze and return to the oven. baste periodically until the internal ham temperature reaches 130 F, and the glaze begins to caramelize.
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