Ham does not equal ham.
In a recent poll of sane people reading the title of this article the most common response was, “Huh”.
I am normally sane and I do not usually mix math, philosophy, and cooking in my titles, but it somehow seemed right.
For Thanksgiving we had turkey of course, but we also had ham. As I have mentioned in other posts, I am not a big fan of turkey. I eat a little now and then (once a year). Ham on the other hand is food worth cooking and eating.
First, if you should decide to have a ham for Christmas or New Years, what kind of ham should you get. Does it matter? You bet it does.
The boneless processed and shaped hams (chopped and formed) are handy for lunch meat but even the best of these hams can’t hold a candle to a bone-in whole ham or half-ham. The difference is in the flavor and texture. They may not be as convenient but they are worth the effort.
A bone in ham has more flavor because of that annoying bone. In our society today people are unaware of subtleties like flavor. People are caught up in the marketing terms and catch-phrases like lean and convenient, or worse cheap. Flavor, real good deep flavor, is not insignificant to people like it used to be. My advice. Don’t hold back if you are serving a ham for dinner. Especially for a special dinner. Go bone-in. You do not have to go to the top end to reap the benefits of flavor. You certainly can go to a Honey Baked Ham store and get an excellent ham from them. A less expensive Hillshire Farms ham at your local grocer or one of many other makers of bone-in hams will reward you with a solid flavor and a good smell spreading from your kitchen. There are also hams smoked by small local smokhouses around the country. Find one that fits your needs and go for it.
You can get a whole or a half ham, depending on how big a piece of meat you need. The half hams come as butt-end (or upper end of the ham) or shank-end (AKA leg-end hoch-end, this is the lower end of the ham) The butt-end has more meat on it and the meat is of higher quality.
What always surprises me about a bone-in ham is how good it is as left-overs. It seems to improve with a day in the frig. You can’t say that about turkey.
How long to cook?
About 13 to 15 minutes per pound. Oven temperature should be about 325. I watch the bone, on a butt-end ham, when it is starting to separate from the meat it’s done. You will find that all of the indicators of the ham being ready will come along near the same time. Outside color, internal temperature, the timber of the meat (how it pulls apart and separates from the bone). You will have the best results when you can look at several things about a dish and see how it is progressing during the cooking process. Each piece of meat is different and each will vary a little as it is prepared. You are shooting for an internal temperature of at least 120 degrees. A ham, unlike other meats you are cooking, has been through one cooking process already. It has been smoked or cooked to about 160 degrees internal by the smokehouse. The objective then is to get it warmed up, without over cooking it and drying out the outside.
This year we used a cooker to heat up the ham. It is like a giant crockpot and uses indirect heat to cook. This helps keep the ham moist. It also catches the juices allowing the ham to bath in them. We did not baste the ham but doing so can help keep the outside moist and soft. However you cook your ham, cover it and catch the juices. Also, you can cover the outside of the ham with brown sugar or honey. Other sauces or flavorings can be used to help moisten the ham or to add to it’s flavor. If you decide to BBQ the ham be aware that this is one technique that will tend to dry out the meat. I recommend using something to baste the ham like a sugar or honey based sauce. If you prefer your ham a little dryer you won’t be disappointed with one off the BBQ. If you like a moist ham and prefer to have it without any sauces or flavors added then baking is the way to go in my opinion.
Consider ham for your next special meal. It will make a great meal and the left-overs are just as good as the original meal was.
