Now, I have eaten ham before, but I, personally, hadn't ever baked a ham. I looked to the butcher in the local grocery store to help me out before making my purchase.
"Hi, I'm a Jewish woman cooking for my Protestant boyfriend and I have no idea about how to make a ham... can you help me out?" I queried, wondering if anyone had ever approached him with a question like that before?
He grinned at me and then lead me to the ham area and patiently helped me make my selection.
I never realized that there were so many choices! He helped me pick out a medium-sized spiral- sliced ham that came with it's own glaze inside.Luckily, I asked him if it had to be cooked, in that to me it looked ready to eat. : 0
At this point his grin turned to hearty laughter as he assured me that it definitely needed a couple of hours in the oven before serving. "Wrap it up tightly in tin foil" he said, "and, don't overcook it or it will dry out." This last statement made me a little nervous as this was too expensive of an "experiment" for me to dry out! I also had my cooking reputation to uphold.
Now, I have seen pictures in magazines of beautifully baked hams with pineapples and cloves in a diamond cut pattern and the artist in me wanted to make mine look like that....however, this already came with a glaze so I didn't want to go into overkill with this first attempt. The artistic touches on top of the ham would have come after this rookie try. (The butcher...still grinning... wholeheartedly agreed with my decision.)
I did buy a little pineapple juice to put in the bottom of the pan while it was sealed up and cooking. My thought was that the juices would kind of steam up into the meat. Not bad for someone who has no idea what she is doing, huh.
I followed the butcher's suggestions and.....Well, I must say that this ham came out absolutely delicious. It was juicy, tender, and flavorful...Dave was quite impressed and appreciative of my efforts to go into this unknown territory!
Who knows? Maybe next year I will attempt hot cross buns! : )
3 comments:
True story: Last Tuesday I'm in my local supermarket, looking for skirt steak, because that's what's next on the list I'm following. As I'm standing over the display of flayed cow products, a woman plucks at my sleeve. When I realize that she's not just hitting on me, I ask her what's up. She points to the ham section. "Ralph's hams are on sale for 99 cents a pound." I reply that this makes no sense to me, as I don't have he information necessary to put this into perspective. Her eyes widen, probably stunned that someone dressed like a hip-hop gangsta could be so lucid. But then she recovers and responds, "Oh, they're normally $3.99 a pound. You should get one."
So I do. My wife is impressed with my acumen and I reap many hubby points and have been left alone all day today, and have now eaten of that ham, which turned out great.
Did Dave fall asleep during The Masters? I did...
Way to go, Bertsky! Way to collect some hubby points...
Yes, Dave did nod off a bit during the Masters...but, he was watching a baseball game too so that helped to keep him awake part of the time.
He is a sport's multi-tasker!
: )
Oh Grammie, Please try the hot cross buns....Go to marthastewart.com amd search for the recipe. The topping to make the cross is a seperate recipe. they were "scrumpious". You can do it. The ham sounded good!
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