Plaster Ham

It was time for this recipe mostly because ham was on sale for Easter. I am nothing if not a cook of cheap convenience. So if your local grocery has some leftover ham on sale but is completely out of aluminum foil then I have a recipe for you!

Let's break this down into ingredients:


For Ham
  • Medium sized ham
  • Pot of Water
  • Flour
  • More water
For Glaze
  • Dijon Mustard
  • Honey
  • Brown Sugar

Here's how I'm going to tackle this

This recipe is more affected than some by the changes to foodstuffs in the last 100+ years. Ham used to be cured using a whole lot more salt than is used now. Some ham is still cured using the salt method but often modern techniques are used in combination. I'm worried that if I soak the ham for ten hours, presumably to reduce the saltiness I will just end up with water logged ham.

So I mostly skipped the soaking part, but in the spirit of following the instructions I filled a pot with water and set the ham in for an hour.

Nailed it

Then I'm going to look around the ham and see if anything looks rusty. Some internet research indicates that a ham that hasn't been grocery store butchered has a yellowy layer of fat that is described as rusty yellow. I don't know for sure if this is what they're talking about, but it could be. If it does I'm going to cut it off. It does not.

Then I'm going to pat it dry. This next part is the most interesting. I'm supposed to cover the ham in a flour and water mixture. If you've ever paid attention while someone made an Easter ham the process normally involves either a cooking bag or aluminum foil. The point is to have the ham steam so that it doesn't get too dry. Back in the day, aluminum foil wasn't an option so a flour crust was the next best thing.

Pictured: Maybe Flour Paste
 I don't know the quantities of "flour paste" so I'm going to try for a consistency thicker than pancake batter and see how that goes. This was much easier to spread over the ham than I thought it would be. I basically piled the flour paste on top and then used a fork to drag it down the sides.



It says moderate oven so we're going to go with 325, because the internet says not to go lower than that, and after an hour I'm going to check the temp with the meat thermometer. When it hits 145 on the inside, it is done. After the first hour I had a miniature existential crisis. I was taking the ham to a friends house for dinner and the internal temp was only 100 degrees. I don't know if it was my oven or my ham or what but I took the heat up to 365 because I was running out of time. My husband reminded me that we could always get an emergency pizza if we needed it and I told him that failure was not an option. After I cranked the temperature I had the internal temperature I needed about 30 minutes later. 


I'll take it out, and take the crust off. Most of the crust took itself off, which begs the question, did I actually steam the ham? The answer is, I don't know but it wasn't dry so mission probably accomplished. Then, because I don't know what a rasping of bread is, I'm going to glaze the sucker and then eat all the ham. For the glaze I used about 2 spoonfuls of Dijon mustard and 1/3 cup of honey spread all over the outside then I spread about 3/4 cup of brown sugar around the outside.


Verdict


If I was a person that used profanity I would use it here to describe to you how freaking good this is. I want to start a food truck, just to feed you this ham on a sandwich. I think the glaze really makes it. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm not certain how effective the flour paste was. If I tried it again I would use a higher proportion of flour in hopes that it would stay together a bit better. My ham was spiral sliced so it basically fell apart when I cut into.

Crisis averted

Take Aways

  • Honey makes everything better

"Life is made all the brighter by satisfactory feeding, and one is a dull philosopher, indeed, that despises a good dinner."





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