It’d been several weeks since I’d chatted with Ed; we saw him in Bozeman back in October and he was as spry and cantankerous as ever that evening.
When he called a couple of days before Thanksgiving he was all business, typically meaning Ed either wants one of us to take him fishing (or bird hunting) or feed him.
This time he was after another recipe – what he called “Jack Brown’s Holiday Ham”.
My first reaction was that he was barking up the wrong holiday food tree and I wasted no time in kidding him about an aging memory that can’t sort out who cooks what for him.
In vintage Ed style he called me a dumbass and proceeded to describe in detail the time that She Who Must Be Obeyed and I served it do him several years ago. By damn he was right, though I’d had filed it mentally under another name – Jack Daniel’s and Brown Sugar Mustard Glazed Ham.
Jack Brown’s Holiday Ham sounds better.
It sounded so delicious we ended up doing one for our Thanksgiving yesterday and Ed was right once again – this has to be one of the very best ways to dress up a smoked ham on the planet.
There are three things particularly great about this recipe:
- It takes a sturdy if not pedestrian smoked ham and turns it into a slightly sweet, slightly boozy ambrosia.
- Hands on time actually prepping this bad boy – minutes. It’s taken far longer to write the damned recipe down.
- In the spirit of a revered southern staple, red eye gravy, you skim the fat from the pan drippings and make a sweet, boozy, apple flavored pan sauce that drives this ham to all-star heights.
Fancy enough for high-brow holiday entertaining, you should really tuck this one away for a long, dark winter day when you need a boost – it’s a keeper.
8 to 12 lb. smoked ham, bone-in
30-35 whole cloves
1 and 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tbsp. dry mustard
6 tbsp. Jack Daniel’s Whiskey, plus one for the sauce
4-6 cups apple cider
2 tbsp. pure maple syrup
Pinch of New Mexico chile powder
1-2 tbsp. cornstarch mixed in cold water (2-4 tbsp.)
Trim up that ham. Bring the ham to room temperature a couple of hours before cooking. Remove any remaining skin and trim the fat layer to 1/4 inch. Turn the ham fat side up and make parallel cuts about 1/2 inch deep and 1 and 1/2 inches apart all over the ham; spin the ham a quarter turn and repeat to make a nice crosshatched pattern. Stick a whole clove in the center of each crosshatched diamond.
Brown sugar paste. Combine the brown sugar, dry mustard and 6 tbsp. of Jack Daniels into a paste; rub it all over your ham. Place the ham fat side up on a rack in your favorite roasting pan; let it rest (covered with plastic) for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Bake it. Pour apple cider into your roasting pan to reach a depth of about 1/4 inch; place the ham in the oven and cook, basting every 30 minutes, for a total time of about 15 minutes per pound. Keep adding cider as needed to maintain a depth of 1/4 inch.
Make a pan sauce. While the ham is resting for 20 minutes or so, pour the pan drippings into a large glass measure and let rest for 5 minutes or so; spoon off the fat layer. Pour into a medium sauce pan and bring to a simmer over medium high heat. Add the maple syrup and chile powder.
Taste the sauce, if it tastes concentrated and flavorful, thicken with the cornstarch mixture; if not, simmer for 7 or 8 minutes to reduce, taste again and thicken. Stir in the final tbsp. of Jack and pour into your gravy bowl or boat.
Serve it up. Slice your masterpiece into thin slices at the table, plate and serve with this incredible sauce.
Enjoy.
