I wanted to try something different for Christmas this year so I decided to do a raw, fresh, uncured ham. It seemed to be pretty daunting but honestly...it was the easiest thing in the world to do and sooooooooooo delicious!
I ordered a 10 - 12 pound ham with the bone-in shank up on an angle. (NOTE...mine was a little over 12 pounds.)
GO ME!
I cut the rind off trying to be as careful as possible separating it from the meat.
Robby called his mother to get directions on how to fry the rind up as cracklings. We didn't do it yet but I have the rind in the fridge just in case we want to try that today.
I mixed 1 teaspoon of fresh ground cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of sugar with 1/2 teaspoon each of ground cloves, allspice and nutmeg.
Then I rubbed it all over the ham.
Then...I scored the top and pierced the center of each section and put a whole clove in each section. I then sprinkled it all over with Tony Chacherie's Creole Seasoning.
Wrap it tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 325 degrees for 3 hours and 10 minutes. Then melt two tablespoons of butter and mix with 1/2 cup of maple syrup and "paint" the ham. Put it back in the oven, uncovered, for twenty minutes.
The thing we were most surprised with is that it wasn't pink as we're used to ham being. LOL! It was very tender and real roast-y tasting. I think I'll cook it less time and I would probably want to make some type of sauce for it. I would totally recommend you try this!
