Baked Ham with Sour Cherries
June 25th, 2014 · 1 Comment · Posted in eating local
When my wife and I bought half a pig from our friend Mike, we chose to have some of the roasts smoked by a local processor and we’re glad we did. We made this incredible ham the other night, finished in the oven with a glaze of sour cherries.
We’ve done a lot of cooking in our days and cooked many a cut of meat, but surprisingly neither of us had much experience with ham. (We once corned and stuffed a fresh ham, in the Southern Maryland style. But that’s another story.) So we consulted the internet for this one and came up with a fine recipe that called for sour cherries. Wouldn’t you know it? We had several jars of sour cherries from Trader Joe’s sitting in the pantry.
Baking the ham is no trick at all. First, use a sharp knife to score the meat in a criss-cross pattern on top, then set it in a pan with some water, cover with aluminum foil and place in a 350-degree oven for about an hour. The time varies, as your goal is to get the internal meat up to a temperature of 140 degrees. About 20 minutes before the ham is done, coat it liberally with a sour cherry glaze–in this case spiced with cardamom, one of my favorite ingredients from the spice drawer.
Return the ham to the oven uncovered and continue roasting until the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees, as measured by an instant-read thermometer. Serve hot with your favorite sides.
just saw your old post on trying to get the ingredients to corn your own ham. did you ever do it? how did it turn out? do you a recipe? thanks