Ham is the preferred meat for Easter dinner for a lot of families. There are so many different ways to make ham that I find it crazy. Pineapple, cloves, cola, glazes, and mustard are all popular flavorings for a nice festive ham. Personally, I am not a huge fan of ham (that’s horrible, I know). I don’t hate it, I just don’t love it either. For me, there’s only one way to prepare ham so that it is palatable and tasty. It’s the way my mom always made it….the only way I can eat it without puckering from crazy saltiness. NOTE: Ham is a salty meat. There is not need to add additional salt to ham unless you have plans to kill someone from salt overdose. Seriously.
Start with an undrained can of crushed pineapple, 1/4 cup of Dijon mustard, and 1/3 cup of (dark) brown sugar. Basically just dump all of these ingredients in a bowl and mix until well blended. That’s your glaze and your sauce. If you find this combination weird, just try it. The pineapple is a classic ham accompaniment as is the brown sugar. By adding a nice Dijon mustard to the mix you prevent things from getting overly sweet while adding a wonderful under-taste.
This is what it should look like all mixed together. Depending on the size of your ham, you need to reserve at least 1 cup of this for heating as a sauce to serve with the ham. For right now, just spoon the mixture onto your ham.
Make sure you coat all of the ham before putting it in the oven. Set your oven to a low heat (I use 275 degrees F). With the high sugar content of this glaze, it will burn. That is not a good taste. Low and slow is the way to go.
As for the piddly little ham I had to make (as pictured above), there are two adults and an 18-month old toddler in my house. We didn’t need a big ham so I bought one of those tiny football sized chunks of ham. It worked out great. Since my ham was so small, I left it in the oven for two and a half hours. It was cooked perfectly. The packaging on your ham should always say how long the meat should be cooked according to weight.
Once the ham is pulled from the oven, put the reserved glaze in a saucepan and bring to a slow simmer for 15 minutes. The sauce will get a little thicker and resemble a chutney. Just spoon it over the ham as you serve it. It’s delicious.
I served my ham with very simple side dishes. Roasted Yukon Gold potatoes and simply done green beans. The tastes on this ham are going to need to be very prominent and simple side dishes are best. I also like to serve a special dinner like this Family Style, i.e. on a big platter where people serve themselves from the middle of the table. If you take the time to make the platter look attractive, it makes the eating experience that much better. We eat with our eyes first.
For dessert, I went simple. I have a toddler and my husband and I are a couple of big kids so the dessert that makes sense for us right now in our lives was cupcakes.
I made simple white cupcakes and frosted them with simple vanilla frosting tinted pastelle with festive sprinkles. I also have to say that I adore this cupcake stand. It might seem a bit hokey, but I think it’s precious and can’t wait to make chocolate ganache cupcakes with fresh flowers on top and stack them on this thing. Cupcakes are fun. Everybody enjoys a good cupcake.
I hope everybody enjoyed their day and perhaps someone will try this glaze and love it as much as my family and I do.
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