My family cooks turkey every holiday. Whether it's Christmas, Thanksgiving, Arbor Day, or the day we celebrate the birth of veteran stage and screen actor Mickey Rooney, turkey seems to be what we cook. Everyone loves it, so why not? But there are times I think of doing something different, like cook a ham. This recipe after the jump seems like a great place to start. Just the mention of the maple syrup and mustard and the apples all cooking together in the roasting pan makes my mouth water. And it seems really easy too.
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
10 lb. smoked ham
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
1 cup apple cider
1 cup chicken stock
Preheat oven to 375. Combine maple syrup, mustard, and brown sugar. Remove rind from ham and leave on fat. Score fat every 1/2 inch. Put it in a roasting pan, then baste it with the mustard/maple syrup/brown sugar. Place apples and onions all around it. Add cider and chicken stock. Cover the foil and cook for 2 hours. Uncover and brush it again. Cook uncovered for about another hour and a half (if you have a thermometer, make sure it's done at 155 degrees). Put ham on cutting board and let it settle for 20 minutes.
Strain gravy (set aside apples and onions for now), spooning off as much fat as you can. Boil gravy in a pan for about 15 minutes. Mix in the rest of the mustard/maple syrup/brown sugar. Serve both gravy and compote.
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