Ree's Dr Pepper-Glazed Ham Is the Only Recipe You'll Need This Easter (2024)

FAQs

What is the best kind of ham to cook for Easter? ›

What most American cooks procure for Easter dinner is a wet-cured, lightly smoked, prebaked ham, what neighborhood butchers called a city ham, when there were still neighborhood butchers. There is nothing particularly urban about city ham, the meat expert Bruce Aidells said, but the name took hold as shorthand.

The idea is to wait until the ham is almost fully heated, then add the glaze as one of the last steps. You don't want to add it too early or the sugars in the glaze could cause it to burn, and you don't want to add it too late or you won't get that caramelized coating.

Cured hams don't necessarily need to be cooked.

Most cured hams (although not all), as well as cured and smoked hams come ready to eat. So, it's really up to you and depends on your taste if you prefer to eat it cold or heated through.

With a bone-in ham, plan on one-third to one-half pound of meat per person (or two to three servings per pound), or more if you want leftovers. For a boneless ham, figure about quarter-pound per person, or more for leftovers.

So here's the hack: Add half a cup of wine or stock to the bottom of your pan before popping that ham in the oven.

Cola adds caramel sweetness to a ham glaze and can stand up to other strong ingredients like bourbon and cloves. If you'd rather not cook with alcohol, use apple juice instead. Start with our Classic Cola-Glazed Ham recipe and give it your own spin, depending on the soda you're using.

Method. Put the gammon into a large saucepan and pour on enough cold water to cover. Add the carrots, leek, onion, peppercorns, coriander seeds, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cook for 3 hours, topping up with more boiling water if necessary.

If you don't cover your ham while cooking it will quickly dry out. Instead: Put some aluminum foil over your ham while it's cooking. It is recommended that the ham is covered for at least half of the cooking process and only removed during the last half when you glaze it.

The glaze should not be applied until the final hour to 30 minutes, in order to avoid burning the sugars. What you're going to do with the glaze ingredients is just combine most of them into a paste, and then apply it to the ham. After that, the heat in your oven will take care of everything.

Ham is traditionally baked in the oven. Cook for approximately 15 to 20 minutes per pound at 300 F. No matter the size of the ham and the temperature of the oven, it should be cooked until the internal temperature reaches 140 F. Covering with foil throughout the cooking process keeps it moist.

What happens if you don't cover ham with foil? ›

The Kitchn explains that the best way to keep ham from drying out in the oven is to simply cover it with some aluminum foil or place it in a baking bag. This will trap any moisture as it evaporates and prevent the ham from drying out.

Ham is often served at the Easter table, which may seem odd since Jesus was Jewish and wouldn't have eaten pork. It seems that this holiday food comes more from the timing of Easter rather than a religious meaning.

That means for a 10-person Easter dinner, you'll need a bone-in ham that weighs between 7.5-10 pounds or a 5-pound boneless ham. If you're serving country ham, though, you'll need way less of it. Although it is delicious, the saltiness will prevent people from heaping it on their plates.

Ham comes from the back legs and rump of a pig. A whole ham is a large piece of meat weighing about 18 to 20 pounds, so most grocery stores sell them in sections. Ham sells both boneless and bone-in. (Remember to keep the hambone to flavor soups, stews, and greens.)

Their size and their thick layer of fat makes Iberico Pigs ideal to make ham because they can be cured for much longer. This produces a very intense, oily and complex flavor that is simply unparalleled.

The most popular ham is cured ham, which has been brined before cooking. The brine is a liquid of water and salt, and seasonings are sometimes added to the brine. Hams are soaked in brine for a few days or weeks before it is smoked.