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HAM WITH WINE AND JAMAICAN GINGER

This is the ONLY recipe that we have used to cook our hams in the past thirty years. Oh, we have tried a few others but not one of them gave us such a wonderful taste. Not only when served fresh out of the oven the first time, but in all of the sandwiches that followed. The subtle hints of wine and spicy ginger were totally meant for a mile-high, on rye, sandwich of paper-thin slices.This recipe requires marinating the ham for at least 24 hours before baking.





List of Ingredients



• 1 ea. Cooked, whole, shank ham or high quality canned ham.
  
• 1 C. White Rhine wine.
  
• 1 T. Ground Jamican ginger. DO NOT use Oriental ginger. It lacks the desired flavor.
  






Instructions



1. It may seem unusual to have only these three ingrdeients in a recipe for baked ham, but we do not want to contaminate its great taste with any sticky glazings. You would not expect to find them on a good deli sandwich.
   
2. Prepare a marinating bag for the ham by placing one small, new, clean garbage bag inside of another and set aside.
   
3. Rinse the ham off under cold, filtered running water and pat dry with paper towels.
   
4. Trim any unwanted fat and skin from the ham, if any, and score over all surfaces in a diamond pattern with cuts 1" apart and 1/2" deep.
   
5. Using a blender or shaker-jar, thoroughly blend the wine and ginger. Set aside for a few minutes for the ginger to be absorbed.
   
6. Place the ham in the inner-most of the two plastic bags, lift up the sides of that bag and pour the wine and ginger mix in and over the ham.
   
7. Close the top of the inner bag and, squeezing out as much air as possible, tie the neck of the bag tightly closed.
   
8. Gently shake the inner bag around to distribute the marinade over the whole ham, pull the outer bag up over it and tie it tightly shut.
   
9. Refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours, rotating the marinating bag over every eight hours or so.
   
10. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the marinating bag in a large, deep mixing bowl, tied ends up. Carefully untie the outer and inner bags, being very careful not spill any of the marinade.
    
11. Transfer the ham to a roasting rack on the bottom of a coverd roasting pan, pour the marinade over the ham, cover the roaster and place in the oven.
    
12. Cook for ten minutes per pound of ham weight or until an instant reading meat thermometer shows an internal temperature of 135°F. If the marinade starts to brown on the bottom of the roaster, add one cup of water poured drectly into the bottom of the pan. Do not splash on the ham.
    
13. When the meat is done, transfer to a clean cutting board, Slice as necessary for servings and tranfer the slice and remaining ham to a heated serving plate.
    
14. For cold sanwiches, slice as thin as possible and pile high between two slices of deli rye, with some DiJon mustard on one and mayonnaise on the other.
    






Final Comments


While writing and proofing this recipe, we became so hungry for a ham sandwich that we had had to rush out to the nearest delicatessen. Their ham was not anywhere as good tasting as that of this recipe! We hope that you will agree. All of our taste testers seem to think so.