Try this for your Easter celebration on Sunday.  It’s very easy, feeds a crowd, and is unbelievably good.  I used a red wine here but a good French wine will work just as well.  I plan to make a Swiss chard gratin, salad, bread, and some other sort of vegetable dish to be determined.  I haven’t sorted out dessert yet either but will post the full menu once I figure it out.  Until then, check this recipe out and give it a try!  PS- this is a recipe from last summer.  I’m reposting it because this is the dish we landed on for Easter this year…my Italian Easter Pie idea was nixed (boo!).

I don’t have a lot of experience with fresh ham. This is actually only the second time I’ve cooked one, though it’s such a massive piece of meat, you can adapt all sorts of recipes for leftovers after your initial meal. For me, there are a few advantages of cooking a fresh ham. First, and foremost, you get a lot of bang for your buck. It’s a great value and it’s sort of a showstopper for a dinner party because it doesn’t really look like a ham and if well roasted, it looks great and tastes really good too! In fact, if you have never had a fresh ham, it really tastes more like a pork loin roast than a typical ham. That difference in taste stems from the fact that it’s fresh or raw. In other words, most hams in grocery stores are usually cured for a number of days in a salt, sugar, spice and who knows what else mixture then slowly smoked. The fresh ham has not had anything done to it so the pork flavor takes center stage. Another really great thing about a fresh ham is that you can ask for the skin to remain on, thus giving you a crispy, browned outer crust. Underneath the crust you get a nice layer of fat that keeps the meat moist and succulent. Basted with French white or red wine, it takes on a nice natural sweetness and acidity as well.

The first time I made a fresh ham it was for a large dinner party for my wife’s co-workers and I made a 20 pound ham. It was huge, barely fitting in our oven. However it did and it worked out great. It easily fed the dinner party and we had lots of leftovers for sandwiches, etc. I actually made homemade Cuban sandwiches with some of the leftovers, complete with homemade Cuban loaves of bread and homemade yellow mustard. It was pretty great. Another little nerdy chef-y benefit to the fresh ham is that I get a fairly large leg bone (yep, the ham is a portion of the leg) that I can make stock out of. Last time I had one, I made a really great combination stock with the pork leg bone, the bones of one chicken, some beef bones with marrow still intact, and rounded out with a bunch of aromatic vegetables and herbs. I use this stock all the time…it made a ton and it’s super tasty. It imparts a great flavor to sauces, braises, stews, etc. Who knows what sort of stock I’m make with this leg bone, but I certainly will make some sort of stock with it!

This time, however, I chose to make a fresh ham as we are having a few relatives over for a number of days and wanted something that we could quickly pull out for dinner, have for lunch, or use for breakfast. I went with a 13 pound ham this time but will cook it in the same manner…rubbed with homemade dried herbs and sea salt, roasted slowly, and basting in a red French wine flavored with thyme, fresh bay leaves, and other aromatics. Luckily it won’t take four to five hours like the 20 pounder did!

I purchased both hams from Barth’s Meat Market in New Providence. They are definitely my go to butcher shop. I made pate the other day and needed ground pork liver…they procured it for me and ground in their grinder despite the fact that they definitely had to disassemble and clean every piece of the machine once it was finished. They did all of that for one customer and I only needed half a pound of the stuff. Talk about a business going above and beyond for a picky but very grateful customer! Anyhow, Barth’s makes their own regular, traditionally smoked hams that they have available all the time. As such, they usually have a fresh ham or two around because they prepare their smoked, cured hams from scratch. Luckily for anyone looking for a fresh ham, then, you don’t really need to even special order this special occasion cut of meat.

As for serving the dish, I plan to put it out on a platter and have it handy anytime for any meal. It’s so versatile that it really could be served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I will probably make a croque madame with it at some point. Can’t beat that! However, I made a homemade tartar sauce that goes great with it. Tartar sauce obviously goes wonderfully with fish but isn’t a ‘fish’ sauce alone. It’s a flavored mayonnaise seasoned with parsley, pickles, shallots, garlic, lemon juice, capers, and Dijon mustard (all of which go great with ham). Anyway, a bit of ham and some tartar sauce coupled with some summer vegetables or a salad will work great!

The recipe for the ham follows after the jump but keep in mind, you can spice it anyway you’d like and you can certainly cure it or brine it yourself prior to roasting it. I haven’t done either of those things yet…perhaps one day. For now, I’m going to enjoy a great slow roasted piece of pork seasoned with traditional French herbs and wine. Hope you try a fresh ham and enjoy it as much as Tara and I have.

Note: I used red French wine this time around. The first time I made a fresh ham, I basted it in a French white. After having now tried both, I definitely prefer the look and taste of the white wine baste. The red tastes just fine and certainly gave the ham a deep red brown hue, which I think looks great. The taste of the red wine is more forward, giving it a sticky, almost jam like feature to the outside crust. So all in all, not so bad. However, if I had to choose again in future, I would definitely go with white wine.

Recipe follows after the jump!

Fresh Ham with Provencal Herbs and Basted with Wine:

Ingredients:

1 Fresh Ham (10-20 Lbs.)

2 T dried thyme

2 T dried sage

2 T dried tarragon

2 T dried lavender

1 T dried rosemary

3 T fine sea salt

1 T freshly ground pepper

3 Fresh bay leaves

5-6 Springs fresh thyme

1 Bulb garlic, halved

1 Onion, halved

2 Carrots, chopped coarsely

2 Celery Sticks, chopped coarsely

Any vegetable scraps you have leftover (I had some fennel and spring onions)

1 Bottle French wine (red or white…both will work)

2-3 T Olive oil

Instructions:

• One day prior to making the ham, take all dried herbs, salt, and pepper and combine.  Crush herbs with hands.  Recombine herd mixture.  Set aside.
• Take knife and score the skin crosswise and then crosswise again, making squares or diamonds.  You should be careful to only cut the skin and into the fat, trying not to cut into the flesh of the ham.  I use a serrated knife to achieve this…also, I have yet to score the ham into perfect squares or diamonds.  Just do your best.
• Rub the seasoning and herb mix all over the ham, making sure to rub the mixture deep into the lines created by the diamonds.
• Place in large plastic bag and place in refrigerator to sit for around 24 hours.
• Remove the ham from the refrigerator about 2 hours prior to cooking.
• Place all vegetables, fresh herbs, and olive oil in a roasting pan.  Season with salt and pepper.  Place the ham on top of the vegetables.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees
• Place roasting pan in oven and roast for approximately 40 minutes.  Reduce heat to 325 degrees.
• Cook another 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, poor wine into pan and place back in oven.
• Cook for another 30 minutes and baste wine on top of the ham.  Repeat this process until an instant read thermometer registers around 155 degrees.  Time will vary depending on thickness of ham, how hot the oven runs, etc. so using the thermometer is the way to go here.  However, I would think at least 3 hours is a good short-end time estimate.
• Once the ham hits 155 degrees, remove from oven and tent with foil.  The carryover heat will increase the internal temperature above 160, which is recommended temperature for a fresh ham.
• After 30 minutes, transfer ham to cutting board or platter and serve.