Glazed & Crowned Baked Ham Dinner

Once again I was out looking for bargain proteins and fresh local specials and stumbled across shank hams for $0.99 per pound!  Needless to say the freezer now holds 4 of these.  Tonight seemed the perfect time to try something new with a ham.  In the past I relied on pineapple, brown sugar and cloves almost exclusively however over the last several years my tolerance of sugar has diminished.  No, not a diabetic nor hypoglycemic, just do not do sugar well anymore.  Bearing this in mind I started thinking of flavors that would go well with a ham and yet not overpower it.  Here's the solution and it WORKED!!

Glazed Ham
My Ingredients:

6 lb Shank Ham (bone in)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
1 tsp paprika
12-14 whole cloves
1/2 tsp pepper (6 grinds from the pepper mill)
1 can pineapple chunks
SIMPLE, RIGHT??

My Method
Place the ham bone facing you in a large sized baking pan or roasting pan.  (optional)>>I scored my ham about 1/2" every 1 " or so on the rind so the sauce would get to the meat.  Keep the rind on, the fat helps keep the ham moist and flavors it.  Remove it when serving of course.  After scoring or not, place your whole cloves on the face toward you about 1" apart.  Stick them in stem first to the base of the flower.  Set this aside now and start mixing your sauce.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl except the pineapple.  When ingredients are whisked together set the bowl aside.  Take your can of pineapple and drop it in a food processor and pulverize it to a sort of apple sauce consistency.  Now whisk the pineapple with your other ingredients until well blended.  Pour all over the ham.  Make sure to cover the entire ham with the sauce.  If you have a very deep baking or roasting pan that allows the lid to be placed on without touching cover your ham now.  If not, take aluminum foil and make a tent over your ham, try not to let the foil touch the meat.  This will help steam your meat at the same time not allowing it to dry or brown.  Cook for 2 hrs.  NOTE:  If the ham you buy is completely RAW then cook at 275 degrees for 4-5 hrs.  When the meat temp is 160 degrees it is done.  Now remove the lid or foil and cook for an additional 40 minutes, basting the meat every 10 minutes until it is well glazed and packed full of flavor.

Remove from the oven and strain the remaining sauce into a 2 qt sauce pan.  Set the ham on a serving plate.  I strain my sauce twice through a wire strainer and once through cheese cloth to remove most of the pineapple pulp and fat.  Skim as much pork fat from the top before you start reducing.  On medium flame start whisking 2 tsp corn starch into your sauce.  Bring to a boil, using a constant whisking which will prevent scorching.  Cook the sauce for 5-7 minutes and then restrain into a sauce pitcher.

I added about 1/4 cup of additional honey to mine for flavor.  You will not need much of this reduction sauce to add a mountain of flavor.

I served this dish with simple honey and butter glazed carrots and cubed, baked sweet potatoes.  MMM-Good

Sauce