Glazing ham was never a Hungarian specialty; consequently the fist time I’ve seen and tasted glazed ham was in Canada. It may have been started by the Germans to appease the god of Freyr, [the god of fertility and boars] during Pagan times.
Hence the recipe is the product of fusion cooking; in it traditional ingredients are enhanced with considerable Hungarian influence. The result of course is brilliant!
The rule of thumb is one hour baking per kilogram at 350F or until a meat thermometer registers 135F. After glazing bake the ham an extra 20 minutes. The recipe is for 1kg or a roughly 2lb ham and it should feed up to six people.
The secret of tender ham is tenting the ham for 20 to 30 minutes before slicing. Don’t cut into the ham right of way, or it will fall apart.
GLAZED HAM
1 kg ham
1 onion
8 cloves garlic
4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup orange juice
10 cloves
2 Tbsp oil
Glaze:
2 tsp honey
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Place the ham bottom side down on the counter.
• Score the top, in a diamond pattern.
• Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil.
• Coarsely chop the onion and peel the garlic.
• Scatter the chopped onion and the garlic around the roasting pan.
• In a bowl combine the apple cider vinegar, oil, mustard, cloves and the orange juice.
• Put a baking rack over the onion mixture and place the ham on top.
• Bake the ham in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until a meat thermometer registers 135F.
• Reserving contents of the roasting pan transfer the ham to a tray.
• Let the ham cool for 30 minutes.
• Omit the next four lines if your ham does not have a hard rind.
Trim away hard rind.
Trim fat to a 1/4 inch layer. [Need not be even].
Place ham bottom side down.
Score fat on top, in diamond pattern.
• Remove the cloves from the onion mixture and pour the whole thing into a pot.
• Add the Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, honey and brown sugar.
• Bring it to a boil.
• Remove and discard the aluminum foil from the roasting pan.
• Transfer the ham back to the roasting pan and spread the glaze all over it.
• Put the glazed ham back in the 180 degree oven for 20-35 minutes until it gets a nice color.
