All about the HAM
Easter brunch staple is best when started on the stovetop
At chef Gabriel Kreuther’s New York restaurant, reclaimed wood beams ringing the dining room evoke the timber homes of Alsace, a French region bordering Germany. Kreuther grew up there, on a farm where he and his family slaughtered one pig a year and preserved many of the parts, including the hind legs, which they cured into ham.
Knowing the time and care that go into that process, Kreuther emphasizes the importance of heating ham carefully. “Do everything you can to not dehydrate it,” he said. “It’s already cooked; you just need to prepare it without killing it.”
Kreuther is talking about the country hams of his youth near the Black Forest, where his family slowly cured the hams in their root cellar and smoked them in a smoking chamber in their attic. But even city hams, the brine-cured haunches piled in supermarket cases, need to be treated with care if cooking for Easter.
Easter brunch should taste like something special and feel like a real accomplishment in the kitchen — like a soufflé, but without the tricky timing and nervousness.
For the star of the meal, a city ham, which most of us know as, simply, a ham, offers the ease of being fully cooked and essentially ready to serve. Even more convenient are the ones that come already cut — spiral-sliced around the bone or thinly sliced. Although these hams are inexpensive, they come at a different kind of cost: The slices dry out easily in the oven.
As part of the wet curing process, some fresh hams are injected with a water solution, which keeps the lean cut moist, but also dilutes the natural pork flavor. The tastiest city ham options are labeled “ham,” which has no added water, and “ham with natural juices,” which has 7% to 8% added water. (“Ham and water products” and “ham, water added” include even more water, which makes them bland and simultaneously spongy and slimy.)
Because hams are fully cooked, they can be eaten without heating and are arguably juiciest that way. “Truly, it is best to serve our hams at room temperature,” said Brian Heffern, retail operations manager for the Honey Baked Ham Co., which reiterates that message on its website, in instructional YouTube videos and through in-store employees. But, of course, they still receive “a lot of complaints of overcooked ham that has dried out,” Heffern said. People don’t follow the
company’s room temperature recommendation or instructions for warming a few slices at a time because they like to heat their hams whole.
It’s understandable. Even if a ham best retains its moisture at room temperature, it can feel weird to serve a holiday centerpiece that way. After decades of trying to bake a presliced ham without its stiffening toward leathery — enclosed in an oven bag, covered with pineapple and then with foil, surrounded by a bath of broth — I gave up on the oven. The thin slabs were no match against the dry heat.
But starting the ham on the stovetop and finishing it with a quick blast in the oven? That turned out flavorful slices with crackling edges in a fraction of the time. (It also left the oven free for baking hot cross buns.)
The inspiration for cooking ham on the stove came from choucroute, a dish of smoked, cured and fresh pork simmered with sauerkraut and wine. I learned to prepare the dish from Kreuther and chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten while working on their cookbooks, which include the choucroute recipes they both grew up preparing in their native Alsace.
What I love most about choucroute is the way smoked ham hocks and slab bacon soak up the wine, perfumed with piney juniper berries, while becoming tender and staying juicy. So I applied that treatment to ham following a tip from Kreuther. He advised cooking ham in “a little liquid, so steam comes up around it.”
Perching a quarter-ham — the ideal size for a smaller gathering — on a rack of onions, I added just enough juniper-spiked Riesling to meet it. In the process of steaming, the ham’s natural juices released into the covered pot, mingling with the wine and surrounding the meat. It felt like magic, the way the slices absorbed the spiced, honeyed broth.
A final coating of brown sugar and honey, speckled with mustard seeds, caramelizes onto the ham in the oven. Heated just long enough for the topping to melt into a candied crust, the ham doesn’t dry out. The slices do, however, develop a pleasant chew, similar to country ham. And the seasoning isn’t limited to the outer ring. Fanning the slices lets the glaze slide between them. The parts untouched by the glaze have a fragrant subtle sweetness thanks to the initial simmering.
This technique works on a spiral-sliced half-ham, too, with double the ingredients and a larger pot, but I don’t have that big a crowd to feed and hate wasting leftovers I can’t finish. That’s already too often the case with hardcooked eggs around this holiday. You can eat only so much egg salad in the time it lasts.
Instead, I make tea eggs, a Chinese snack all the aunties brought to my childhood church on Easter Sunday. Soaked in a brew of black tea, soy sauce, ginger and spices, hard-cooked eggs take on a complex savoriness. Often, the shells are cracked just enough to let the tea seep through and stain the eggs with an intricate marbled pattern.
If you’re using dyed eggs, you can peel them first if you want to avoid ingesting the food coloring. Fully peeled eggs emerge a stoic brown and with even more flavor. In both cases, the eggs keep in the refrigerator for up to a week and taste as good on their own as they do with pork, chicken, rice, noodles or vegetables. (They also make amazing egg salad.)
Honey Ham
2 cups Riesling or other semidry white wine
1 tablespoon juniper berries
1 teaspoon whole black or green peppercorns
5 whole cloves
3 tablespoons honey, divided use
1 large onion, thickly sliced
1 presliced quarter-ham (4 to 6 pounds), drained if needed
½ packed cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons whole-grain
Dijon mustard
Choose a pot that fits the ham with enough space on top to close its lid and with space between the ham and the sides. Combine the wine, juniper berries, peppercorns, cloves and 2 tablespoons honey in the pot, and mix well. Arrange the onion in the center to form a rack for the ham and place the ham on top, flat side down. It should sit just above the wine.
Bring to a boil over mediumhigh heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer, basting after 15 minutes, until the ham is heated through, 30 to 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil. Combine the brown sugar, mustard and remaining tablespoon honey in a small bowl.
Carefully transfer the ham to the foil-lined pan using 2 sturdy metal spatulas. The slices should have fanned open. If they haven’t, separate the slices, nudging them into a pretty arrangement. Add 1 tablespoon cooking liquid from the pot to the brown sugar mixture and stir until smooth. (Save the remaining cooking liquid for stews or braises.) Pour over the ham, spreading evenly all over the top and not letting too much spill onto the foil. Fold up the sides of the foil to form a little boat to hold any ham juices.
Bake just until the topping is crackling and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. Carefully transfer to a serving platter with the spatulas, then pour the juices from the foil all over the ham. Serve immediately, with the onions from the pot, if you’d like.
Makes 8 servings.
Tea Eggs
12 large eggs
½ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons shaoxing wine or dry sherry
2 teaspoons sugar
4 slices peeled fresh ginger
1 whole star anise
1 teaspoon whole Sichuan or black peppercorns
1 teaspoon coarse salt
3 Chinese tea bags or 1/3 cup loose tea, such as oolong or jasmine Take the eggs out of the refrigerator to let them warm up a bit. (Very cold eggs can crack when they hit boiling water.)
Combine the soy sauce, shaoxing wine, sugar, ginger, star anise, peppercorns and salt in a medium saucepan. Add 3 cups water and the tea bags, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to maintain a bare simmer.
Bring a few inches of water in a large saucepan to a boil over high heat. Using a spoon, carefully and quickly add the eggs one at a time. Cook for 6 minutes for jammy yolks, 7 minutes for just-set yolks and 8 to 10 minutes for hard yolks. Pour the boiling water out of the saucepan, keeping the eggs back with a lid or spatula, then fill the saucepan with cold water from the tap. Let stand until the eggs are cool enough to handle, then drain.
To create a marbled look, tap the eggs with the back of a spoon to create hairline fractures all over with some bigger cracks but without breaking off the shells. For solid-colored eggs, peel the eggs completely. Transfer the eggs to the simmering soy sauce mixture. Remove from the heat. Cover the saucepan or transfer everything to an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 12 hours and up to 7 days before peeling the eggs and eating.
Makes 12 eggs.
Hot Cross Buns
For the dough:
1 ¼ cups whole milk
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
(1 envelope)
¼ cup PLUS 1 teaspoon
2granulated sugar
3 /3 cups bread flour, plus more if needed (see notes)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon fine salt
4 tablespoons butter, plus more for the bowl and pan
1 egg
¾ cup raisins (see notes)
½ cup diced candied orange peel
For the topping:
1 ¾ teaspoons orange blossom water (optional)
1/3 cup bread flour (see notes)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium until steaming. Remove from the heat. Transfer ¼ cup hot milk to a small bowl and let cool to 110 to 115 degrees if needed, about 1 minute. It should feel lukewarm if you stick your finger in it. Stir in the yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. If the yeast doesn’t foam, it’s dead; start again with new yeast.
Meanwhile, whisk the remaining ¼ cup sugar with the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and salt in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the butter to the milk in the saucepan and stir until it melts.
When the butter has melted and the milk mixture is lukewarm, pour it into the dry ingredients, along with the yeast mixture and egg. If using a stand mixer, beat with the dough hook on medium-low speed until a smooth elastic ball forms, scraping the bowl and hook occasionally, about 10 minutes. The dough should feel sticky but not stick to your hands. If working by hand, mix the ingredients with your hand until a shaggy dough forms, then knead in the bowl to form a shaggy ball. Transfer to a work surface and continue kneading until smooth and elastic, about 15 minutes. You shouldn’t need to flour your surface, but, if the dough is sticking to it, lightly flour as needed.
Add the raisins and candied orange peel to the dough and knead them in until evenly distributed. Form the dough into a ball.
Generously butter a clean large bowl and transfer the dough ball to it. Turn the ball to coat with the butter, then cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 ½ hours.
Butter a 9-by-13-inch cake pan. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and divide into 12 even pieces with a bench scraper, sharp knife or your hands. Form a piece into a ball by folding it over itself and pulling the stretchy dough over the fruit bits so they’re not sticking out. Once you have a smooth ball, pinch the seam at the bottom shut and place seam side down on the surface. Cup your hand over the ball and move your hand quickly in a circular motion to tighten the ball into a perfect round. Place in the prepared pan. Repeat with the remaining dough and arrange the balls in a 3-by-4 grid, spacing evenly apart. At this point, you can cover the pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 day.
Open a large, clean unscented produce, recycling or garbage bag and slip the pan into it. Fill a tall glass with hot water, place next to the pan in the bag and tie the bag shut. (This creates a warm, steamy environment for the dough to rise.) Let the balls rise until their sides are touching, about 1 ½ hours (longer if the dough has been chilled).
When the dough is almost done rising, heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare the topping: If using orange blossom water, stir 1 ½ teaspoons into ¼ cup water in a small bowl. Add the flour and stir into a smooth paste. Transfer to a pastry bag or resealable plastic bag and snip a 1/3-inch hole in one corner. Pipe lines across the centers of the balls in one direction and then again in the opposite direction so that each ball has a cross.
Bake until risen and browned, 20 to 22 minutes. The internal temperature of a center bun should register 190 degrees. While the buns are baking, heat the sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a small saucepan over medium until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ¼ teaspoon orange blossom water, if using. As soon as the buns come out of the oven, brush the syrup evenly over them. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature. Makes 12 buns. Notes: You can substitute 4 cups all-purpose flour for the bread flour in the dough and 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour for the bread flour in the topping. The buns may not rise as high while baking and the crosses may not stand out as much, but the buns will still be delicious.
Use dark or golden raisins, whichever you prefer. If your raisins are dried out, you can make them plump and juicy again by covering them with very hot tap water (or just boiled water) and letting them stand while you prepare the dough, about 10 minutes. Drain well before kneading them into the dough.