A traditional American dish from the South as a holiday alternative to turkey or roast.

The sweet fragrant spicy glaze compliments the saltiness of the ham. This dish feeds a big crowd with a minimal amount of effort. Buy a good quality ham such as Burgundy or Prague Ham, of at least 2 kilos.

Ingredients:

• 1 good quality ham, at least 2 kilos
• ½ bottle of apple juice or cider
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 2 TBSPs very spicy mustard –
  I use one made in Frankfurt locally with beer from the www.frankfurter-senfgalerie.de
• 1/4 cup of maple syrup
• at least a dozen whole cloves
• fresh ground black pepper
• 1 TBSP of red wine vinegar

Putting in all together:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit / 180 degrees Celsius.
• If your ham is packaged, remove it from the package and pat it dry with paper towels. If the ham has netting around it, remove the netting and discard it. In Europe this is often the case since they rarely bake ham in this way.
• Place the ham on a roasting rack in a large deep roasting pan.
• Pour a half a bottle of apple juice or cider over the ham.
• Place the ham in the oven, fat side up and bake for 20 minutes.
• Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and let it sit, stirring occasionally
• Remove the ham from the oven and transfer the ham carefully (hot) to a carving board (so you can collect any escaping juices.
• Score the skin and fat of the ham on the top by slicing first one way and then the other to create medium-sized squares do not cut through into the ham.
• Stick in whole clove into each square so the bud looks out of the skin.
• Stir the glaze and use a basting brush to coat the ham with the glaze, coat thoroughly reserving leftover glaze. Place a meat thermometer in the ham at the thickest point and return the ham with the juices to the roasting pan and bake a further 1 hour or more until the meat thermometer reads 160 degrees Celsius (calculate approx. 20 minutes per pound).
• Remove from the oven, cover the ham with foil and let it sit for 5 minutes before transferring it to a caring board for serving.
• Don’t carve the whole ham at once but just the slices needed for a first serving, so that you or guests can carve more as needed and the meat will remain warm for a while. The rest can be eaten cold on great ham sandwiches.
• A ham also looks great on a buffet table so everyone can carve their own slice.

Yuuummmmm……..