Week 14 - Home Baked Ham Pt.1

In my family Easter is a BIG deal. I mean Texas sized, lots of people, party at the house, egg hunts, confetti eggs, eat 3 dozen deviled eggs in an hour big deal. I love it. This is the holiday when my family really shines. You see once upon a time we hosted a couple guys from Zambia that were part of an A Capella choir. So for Easter my mom invited the WHOLE choir over and their host families. At the time that meant about half of our church was over at our house. It was a huge hit of a party (or so I assume because we've had one almost every year since) and the party became a yearly tradition. I was about 4 or 5 at the time so I don't even remember Easter without a party.

This year the torch has been passed and Easter is going to be hosted by my little family! Last year I tried to make a ham. It turned out okay. I wanted to brine it, but much like corned beef ham without saltpeter is well.... gray. It was a bit like a giant pork chop. It tasted fantastic, the glaze was delicious, it was not "ham". I know that to get the precise hammy flavor of the store bought guys you really need a smoker. We are renters. Smokers are expensive and hard to move. That will have to wait a few years. So this year I went on to Amazon and bought some Prague powder #1/instacure #1 (because it's made for curing meats and is close to saltpeter, which is seemingly only sold as stump remover) and we are trying again. If you want to brine a ham here's how to start.

You'll need:
15lb RAW Ham (The only place we can find them is Whole Foods. You ask the guy at the "normal" grocer and they will laugh at you. Then call their boss over. He will also laugh and tell you where the precooked hams are.)
4qts Water in a Pot (I did 4qts because I have a 5qt stock pot)
2 c Salt
4 1/2 c Dark Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Allspice Berries
1 Tbsp Cloves (I was a little sparing on the cloves because the butcher had already put cloves on the ham)
2 tsp Mustard Seeds
2 Broken Cinnamon Sticks
3-4 Crushed Bay Leaves
~2 tsp Prague Powder (It says on the bag 5 tsp/25lb. I took 5 divided by 25 then multiplied by the weight of my ham. I needed 2 1/3 tsp. I would do maths for exact amounts.)
~4lbs Ice
~6qts Extra Water

In your stock pot combine water, salt, sugar, spices, and Prague powder over high heat. Bring to a boil and stir, stir, stir until everything is dissolved.



In a big ol' container pour a bunch of ice. We took the container of our ice maker and just poured it all into a Rubbermaid storage box. Then pour in your brine and stir until the ice is melted or until you can't see it melting any more. We still had ice left.

It's time to put in your ham. After putting it in cover it completely with water, we needed 6 more quarts. Then put it all in the fridge and let it sit for (preferably) 10 days. If you hit a snag and have to start 6 days before don't worry. It should be okay.

Next week: Baking the ham and making deviled eggs!

Happy eating Easter!
Tori