Mitford Ham Recipe

This recipe is from Jan Karon"s Mitford Kitchen book: (the picture is mine ;-) This is a large turkey plate!)

Father Tim's Baked Ham

oil for greasing the pan
1 cup brown sugar (hmm, I may have accidently used 1/2 cup--not sure!)
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup bourbon
1 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons Dijon mustare
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 (6-8 pound) smoked ham

Directions"
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a large baking dish and set aside. Combine the brown sugar and molasses in small saucepan and melt over low heat. Remove from the heat, add the bourbon, orange juice, mustard, and cloves, and mix well.

Remove the skin and fat from the ham and place in the baking dish. (I used a Smithfield Smoked Shoulder of 9 pounds and after removing the skin and fat I parboiled it for 25 minutes in covered water, before placing it in the baking dish). Make 1/4 inch cuts in the ham in a diamond pattern. Pour the glaze over the ham.

Bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until thermometer in thickest portion registers 140 degrees---I did 160 since that is what the cover on the ham said and my thermometers said to cook to 160.---basting every 15 minutes with the glaze.

Remove the ham from the oven and cool in the pan. (I let it cool for 15 minutes or so before putting in frig) . Remove from the pan and refrigerate. Pour the pan drippings into a bowl and refrigerate.

When ready to serve the ham, remove the fat from the top of the drippings, remove the whole cloves, warm it up , and serve it with the ham.

This was delicious, but it would not be as good without the bourbon--that is what gives it most of its flavor. It was one of the best flavored hams I have tasted and was wonderful with the crock pot sweet potato recipe below.

NOTE--for those of you needing to be GLUTEN FREE READ HERE ABOUT BOURBON http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/GlutenFreeAlcohol/f/Is-Bourbon-Gluten-Free.htm

Another VERY EASY crockpot Ham recipe that was delicious too was this recipe:http://nannykimsrecipes.blogspot.com/2012/12/ham-in-crock-pot-brown-sugar-and-cloves.html