Baked Ham

A two-stage method: the ham is fully cooked by boiling, then given a short bake purely for the glaze. The recipe assumes a whole bone-in country ham and gives no oven temperature.

• The oven temperatureNone is given because the ham is already cooked and the bake is only for colour. A hot oven, around 400F, will melt and caramelise the sugar crust within the half hour without drying the meat; a moderate oven will glaze more slowly.
• Boiling the hamReckon on roughly 20 minutes per pound at a bare simmer, never a rolling boil, which tightens the muscle. The ham is done when the bone at the shank end turns freely and the interior reads 145F. Let it cool in its own liquid for an hour or so if time allows, then skin while still warm, as the rind peels away easily then and only stubbornly once cold.
• Which ham to buyA dry-cured, uncooked, bone-in ham is what the book means, and it will want soaking overnight in cold water, with a change or two, before boiling. Most supermarket hams today are wet-cured and sold fully cooked; those need no boiling at all and can go straight to the coating and the oven, heated through to 140F.
• Soft bread-crumbsCrumbs torn from the soft interior of a day-old loaf, not the dry sandy crumb sold in canisters. Dried commercial crumbs will not absorb the fat and sugar the same way and give a gritty crust.
• Four parts sugar to one of crumbsBy volume. For a whole ham figure on about 2 cups packed brown sugar to 1/2 cup crumbs, which is enough to coat a 12-14 lb ham. The mixture is stiff and dry; if it will not adhere, brush the fat with a little of the cooking liquid or with mustard first.
• The mustardMost likely dry mustard powder rather than prepared, stirred into the sugar. Prepared mustard from a jar works but adds moisture and dilutes the sugar, so use about a tablespoon and expect a softer glaze.
• Scoring and clovesThe recipe makes its diamond pattern with the cloves alone, set about an inch apart; scoring the fat in a lattice first and setting a clove at each intersection is a later variant. Whole cloves are aromatics, not food; lift them out before carving or warn people at the table.
• YieldA whole bone-in ham of 12-14 lb serves 20 or more, with leftovers assumed. This is a recipe written for a household that expected cold ham on the sideboard for several days afterwards.