Need a recipe for my birthday.

[wotavidone]

Last Christmas, we ordered our usual smoked ham (leg on bone) from our usual supplier. Traditionally we buy the Chrissie ham from a particular small goods shop, not the local supermarket.

However, my wife was in the local supermarket, where she happens to work, when they decided to have a super special on smoked whole leg ham. It was very cheap especially with the 10% employee discount on top and, according to friends who bought one too, very nice.
So we got one of those, as well as our usual, and left the supermarket one in the original vacuum packed wrapping and put it in the freezer.

Fast forward to August.
Contrary to popular opinion, I'm not an alien. I was actually born to a human mother and I sometimes celebrate the fact.

According to the little sign on the freezer, it is recommended to freeze hams for 6 months. So 7.5 months is fine by me!

So my plan is to haul this baby out, thaw, taste test it, and if it isn't bad, I'm thinking I'll try my hand at a baked ham.
Any helpful tips on temperatures, cooking times and glazes would be most appreciated. Skin on, skin off?
Any coatings/glazes that aren't sugar based? Though I'm sure I can overcome my general dislike of sugar on meat just this once.

Regards,
Mick

[TropicalCoasting]

Re: Need a recipe for my birthday.

Just used the left over hock from my last leg for pea and ham soup today.
I use marmalade, kumquat liqueur, maple syrup,dijon mustard, garlic, rhyme, bay leaf.
Skin off decorative crown cut around the hock
Score the fat in diamond pattern
You can eat the thing raw so you really only heating it up and getting some toasty bits
Its nice to break down some of the internal fats.
Usually takes an hour or so in the weber (oven should be similarish)

[wotavidone]

Re: Need a recipe for my birthday.

Thanks mate. It never occurred to me to think about pea and ham soup. It's pretty common for people to keep the hock/left over bits from the chrissie ham and use during winter to make a soup. Nobody says "heck has this been in the freezer a month too long?"
I did some further reading and found that the recommended time of 6 months is for raw uncured hams. i.e. referring to the cut of meat.
So I was bit stressed.
But I got the leg out last night, this morning it was defrosted enough to take a slice off the end. I fried it and it was delicious, if a little salty.

The missus has pronounced it good enough to serve to the family, so the job is on tomorrow.
I'm considering giving it a soak for a while, just to reduce the salt.

[wotavidone]

Re: Need a recipe for my birthday.

Naturally I forgot the photos. Anyhow, the ham was pretty good.

I fired the oven to white dome, then let the fire die down and things moderate a bit. I left coals in the oven and put the ham on a rack in a roasting pan. A cup of water in the bottom, scored the skin in diamond pattern, covered with foil. After an hour or so the smell was driving me crazy. I took the alfoil off, painted the ham with glaze and finished it with the foil off.
Glaze was one big spoonful each of orange marmalade, brown sugar and orange juice.
Still not keen on sugar with meat. I made sure the guests, who do like sweet stuff on their meat, got the outside glazed bits, and I took my serving from further into the ham, so I didn't mind too much. Guests all came back for seconds "just one more slice", so I think they liked it.
A roasting pan full of baby potatoes, carrots and pumpkin with seasalt, mixed herbs and olive oil, and a smaller one with cherry tomatoes and onions took care of the veggies.
The missus says we must break the habit of a life time and have baked ham for Christmas this year. (here in Oz usually the only hot dish served at Christmas at chez wotavidone is the oysters Kilkpatrick.)
My son's new pup appreciated the hambone.

I think I can safely say, if you buy a vacuum packed, ready to eat smoked ham, it will last a very long time in a proper deep freeze (not the compartment at the top of your fridge) if you leave it in the original packing. With no air in the vacuum packing, there is no freezer burn, for example.