Holiday Ham with Glaze (Recipe)

One Straw Ranch hams must be fully cooked. They are not like a partially cooked or pre-cooked ham from the grocery store that only needs to be reheated.

In general, you want to cook this ham fairly low and slow until it reaches an internal temperature of about 160 degrees. This will give you a tender, sliceable roast.

At 350 degrees, this takes approximately 30 minutes per pound. If you have the time, cooking as low as 250 degrees will give even more time for the fat to render deliciously through the meat.

I like to make sure the ham will not dry out, so I cook it covered with a bit of water and then remove the cover and turn up the heat for the last few minutes. This keeps the meat moist and then browns up the outside for a beautiful finish.

You can add a glaze or not, as you prefer.

Holiday Ham Recipe

Ingredients

3-4 lb One Straw Ranch Ham

splash of water

Optional Glaze:

2 T bourbon

1 T maple syrup

1 tsp dijon mustard

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place thawed roast in a roasting pan, fat side up.

Add enough water to just cover the bottom of the pan, and cover with foil.

For a tender, sliceable ham, roast until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees, approximately 30 minutes per pound. A 3.75 lb roast will take a little over 2 hours.

(For a fall-apart ham in the style of pulled pork, continue cooking to 200 degrees.)

At this point, the ham will be cooked through and is ready to eat, but it will not have a nice brown crust.

Remove the foil and the twine, turn up the heat to 450 degrees, and roast until the top has browned nicely - check every 5 minutes. It took 10-15 minutes for the ham pictured below. It could have used a little more time to brown more thoroughly. Tent with foil and let set 10 minutes before serving.

Finished roast shown here with strings removed and the optional glaze.

Once you remove the foil and cook at the higher heat, the roast will brown up nicely even if you choose not to use the glaze.

Don't discard those pan juices! Pour it into a jar to cool in the refrigerator and save it to make ham and beans!

Optional Glaze: while the roast is cooking, whisk together in a small saucepan the bourbon, maple syrup and mustard.

Heat over medium high, stirring, until the glaze reduces a bit and becomes slightly syrupy. Be attentive - there's not much liquid here and it could burn - it will only take a few minutes.

When you remove the foil, cut the twine off the roast, then brush the top and sides with the glaze before returning to the oven to finish browning.

Enjoy!

Note: If you see a small lighter circle in the center of the roast - as seen in this picture - it is not cause for alarm.

This is a small-batch, handmade, artisan product, which naturally results in variation. Sometimes the brine does not quite make it through the entire roast so what you are seeing is a small spot of un-brined pork.

This is purely aesthetic and does not affect the quality of the ham. Your roast will still be delicious!

For a little inspiration, check out this recipe review from a happy customer:

Charlotte hit the nail on the head with this recipe. I make my own stocks, so with a tiny splash of water to the baking dish, I added a frozen cube of pork stock, (made from OSR bones). Then I cooked my 3.1 lb. One Straw Ranch ham roast at 280 degrees for 2 hours 40 minutes, and it came out perfectly at 175 degrees, and super soft and tasty. . Next time I would add 150% of the specified ingredients for f the glaze, and to apply it both before and during the final broiling  stage, i.e. a second coat. it's a great glaze, perfect proportions. After a 10 minute rest, the ham sliced thinly with a very sharp chef's knife.   I froze the drippings and a few ounces of ham in a container for a future use in f ham and beans..Delightful.  Thank to One Straw Ranch!!- Bill Higgins, Port Townsend

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