Christmas Ham

Posted by Fresh Fork Market on 4:33 pm, Dec 20, 2011 in About Your Ingredients, News, Recipes | 0 comments

Your ham (if you ordered one) is already cooked. It has
been smoked over hickory wood chips and basted with a
brown sugar glaze. All you need to do is reheat your
ham to an internal temperature of 150 to 160 degrees.
Depending on what cut you have, carving it will be
slightly different. The shank portion is the one that is
pointed at one end. This is the type of ham that is often
“spiral cut” because it only has one, straight bone. This
ham will be pretty easy to carve.
The rump section has two bones. They join at a large
angle, maybe 140 degrees or so (L ish shaped). This can
be tricky for carving. Try tracing the bone with the tip of
your knife and cutting large chunks off of the bone. They
are easier to carve this way.
When you have carved your ham, be sure to save all the
scraps and bones. Not only will your dog love a good
ham bone….but so will your stock pot. Add the ham
bones to a stock pot, cover with water, and load the
water up with potatoes, carrots, etc. Salt the water and
bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to a soft boil or
simmer.
About an hour in, add onion. I like to add mine in large
chunks. At this point, add some ham scraps you may
have accumulated when carving the ham.
Cook the bone until the remaining meat falls from the
bones. Pull the bones out and season to taste.
At this point, it is ready to serve. Some cooks like to cool
it and scrape the fat off. I personally leave it for two
reasons. One, it is flavor. Two, it helps preserve the
soup. When you put it back in the fridge the fat will
form a layer sealing off the soup below. This soup will
keep for about 10 days after cooking.