Thanksgiving ham
October 5, 2010 1:41 PM Subscribe
Help me make a glazed ham this weekend.
I promised to make a glazed ham for Canadian Thanksgiving. However, I have never done this before, and I live in Germany. So, aside from a good recipe, I need your help to figure out: what am I actually looking for, meat-wise? Germans are definitely big on pork, so there is a lot of ham around, but the cuts and everything are different, and just asking for "schinken" isn't going to be specific enough. Also, I don't want to go the frozen ham route, so I will be going to a butcher. For example, should it be soaked in brine? On a bone? What kind of preparations do I need to do? A cursory AskMe and Google search suggests brine has something to do with cooked hams...? I was at a butcher today and saw what looked like small hams, on bones, and the guy at the counter said they had been soaked in brine. Is that it? And if so, is it possible to get something much bigger? This ham will accompany a turkey, but we will be a large group.
I promised to make a glazed ham for Canadian Thanksgiving. However, I have never done this before, and I live in Germany. So, aside from a good recipe, I need your help to figure out: what am I actually looking for, meat-wise? Germans are definitely big on pork, so there is a lot of ham around, but the cuts and everything are different, and just asking for "schinken" isn't going to be specific enough. Also, I don't want to go the frozen ham route, so I will be going to a butcher. For example, should it be soaked in brine? On a bone? What kind of preparations do I need to do? A cursory AskMe and Google search suggests brine has something to do with cooked hams...? I was at a butcher today and saw what looked like small hams, on bones, and the guy at the counter said they had been soaked in brine. Is that it? And if so, is it possible to get something much bigger? This ham will accompany a turkey, but we will be a large group.
Response by poster: Hmmm. Like I mentioned, I did see some smallish brined ham-legs. Would that be good to use for a glazed ham? Home-brining sounds interesting, but I would need more details. For one, how do I 'inject' the liquid into a solid raw hunk of ham?
posted by molecicco at 2:21 PM on October 5, 2010
posted by molecicco at 2:21 PM on October 5, 2010
Best answer: Kochschinken is likely close to the toupie ham we all know and love. But basically, you want a
There's no particular reason to slather it with a mixture of brown sugar and mustard and then roast it (which is the traditional glazed ham recipe). If it were me, I'd get some really nice apple butter, a couple of cans of hard apple cider and about four onions. Chop the onions roughly and scatter in the bottom of your roasting pan. Set the ham on the onions, then slather the ham with the apple butter. Pour one cider in the pan (the other is for you!), add a bay leaf and some peppercorns, cover, and bake in a 300 degree oven until heated through (couple of hours).
I guarantee, it will taste sweet and glazed without destroying the great flavours of a dry-cured smoked ham.
posted by LN at 2:24 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]
There's no particular reason to slather it with a mixture of brown sugar and mustard and then roast it (which is the traditional glazed ham recipe). If it were me, I'd get some really nice apple butter, a couple of cans of hard apple cider and about four onions. Chop the onions roughly and scatter in the bottom of your roasting pan. Set the ham on the onions, then slather the ham with the apple butter. Pour one cider in the pan (the other is for you!), add a bay leaf and some peppercorns, cover, and bake in a 300 degree oven until heated through (couple of hours).
I guarantee, it will taste sweet and glazed without destroying the great flavours of a dry-cured smoked ham.
posted by LN at 2:24 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]
A 'picnic' ham is sorta what you're looking for. The cure is basically a week-long brine process. 10 minutes of work and a week's wait
Here is a simple recipe for a brine, adopted from Michael Ruhlman's excellent Charcuterie. The recipe listed is pretty basic, consider spicing it up with bay leaves, juniper berries, garlic, cracked pepper and such.
Now, American pork is smoked, so you will not get that familiar taste you've come to expect without some wood chips and a slow low-low-low temperature smoking and then baking with a honey/fruit syrup glaze.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:28 PM on October 5, 2010
Here is a simple recipe for a brine, adopted from Michael Ruhlman's excellent Charcuterie. The recipe listed is pretty basic, consider spicing it up with bay leaves, juniper berries, garlic, cracked pepper and such.
Now, American pork is smoked, so you will not get that familiar taste you've come to expect without some wood chips and a slow low-low-low temperature smoking and then baking with a honey/fruit syrup glaze.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:28 PM on October 5, 2010
OK, sometimes I feel like a shill for Alton Brown and Good Eats, but that show did teach me how to cook.
City Ham recipe looked great!
From episode "Ham I Am" first half, second half
posted by Long Way To Go at 9:14 PM on October 5, 2010
City Ham recipe looked great!
From episode "Ham I Am" first half, second half
posted by Long Way To Go at 9:14 PM on October 5, 2010
Response by poster: Oh my god LN, I went with your recipce. All I can say is - THAT WAS DELICIOUS.
posted by molecicco at 2:23 AM on October 12, 2010
posted by molecicco at 2:23 AM on October 12, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
It might be tough to find a cured ham in Germany that you'd want to slap the usual sweet glaze on - Westphalian ham is like very very good country ham, except it would be a crying shame to put a bunch of junk on it and cook it.
And a fresh ham isn't really what you're thinking of at all - it's just a giant piece of bone-in pork at that point. BUT it could become quick salty smoky ham for you - I would seriously consider this, after weighing the price/time of either mail ordering or chasing down a thing that isn't really that great anyway. Just buy a bone-in leg of appropriate size and brine it at home with salt, sugar, and curing salt (you're cooking it right away, actually, so you wouldn't actually need the saltpeter). You could probably get it sufficiently salty in four days if the ham was smallish, and you injected the liquid as well as immersed it. Then cook and glaze however you like.
posted by peachfuzz at 2:04 PM on October 5, 2010