City Ham

Adapted from John Martin Taylor in Fine Cooking Magazine

This ham is so good that during parties I have to make sure no one's around when I carve it because folks will flat-out pull the thing to death.  From John Martin Taylor

It's nice to have a baked ham on hand around holidays, particularly if you have company coming and going. It's good to slice thin and sandwich between two halves of Tiny Corn Muffins. With leftovers, in addition to the obvious sandwiches, you can slice it and serve with Macaroni and Cheese and buttered peas, or sizzle slices of ham in butter to serve with scrambled, fried, or poached eggs. 

John Martin Taylor, who is originally from Charleston, calls this a city ham (wet cured) to distinguish it from a country ham (dry cured), which is also delicious but best eaten like prosciutto - sliced paper thin and eaten sparingly. If you look at his blog post where this recipe is embedded close to the end, you will find something interesting to read as well as some other great things he makes.

City Ham

Adapted from Hoppin' John Martin Taylor

The caveat here is that you have to have a really good ham.

1 whole bone-in fully-cooked smoked ham or 1/2 bone-in fully-cooked smoked ham, shank end preferred, but butt end is okay (I always make a half ham) Note: This is NOT a canned ham.

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Remove your ham from its packaging. Put the ham on a flat rack in a roasting dish, and loosely crumple a piece of aluminum foil over it. You want the foil to be a loose tent, not a tight cover.

Bake the ham at 275 degrees - for 7 to 8 hours if you have a whole ham; for 3 to 4 hours if you have half ham.