Christmas Hams would always be the star of the Noche Buena feast and we always make our own. I tried making homemade ham back in 2009 using my mom’s recipe because I just loved it so much and I want to replicate it.
We used to have a meat stall in the local wet market and back then her homemade hams were such a hit. Many of our suki would place their order during October and November because we can only accommodate a limited number.
To make sure we have ham for our Noche Buena four nights ago, I tried making the ham again but this time I added cloves and instead of using brown sugar when I roasted it in the oven, I used pineapple-brown sugar glaze.
It looked so much better and much like those hams in tv commercials…don’t you agree?
But I found out something. I found out I don’t really like that much cloves in my ham..hee.
Next time, I’ll put only 8-10 pieces…
- big chunk of pork around 1kg {Kasim or Pigue}
- 4 tbsp white sugar
- 1½ tbsp salt
- ¼ tsp praque powder
- ¼ tsp msg
- 1 cup of local Gin
- 2-3 cups + ½ cup Pineapple Juice
- ¼ cup brown Sugar
- cloves
- Combine white sugar, salt, praque, msg and gin in a bowl. Mix well.
- Using a knife make incisions in your block of meat.
- The sugar and salt won’t be dissolved in the gin right away. Rub your sugar-salt mixture outside the meat and put some in the incisions that you made as well.
- Put meat inside the ham net and set aside in the fridge for 15 days or more with the marinade, taking it out every other day to put some of the marinade inside the incisions.
- After, 15 days, take it out of the fridge and out of the ham net and boil your ham in Pineapple juice for 25 minutes.
- Let it cool for a few minutes then put ham in a baking tray, fat side up.
- Insert cloves alternately into the ham net markings.
- Make pineapple-brown sugar glaze by mixing ¼ cup brown Sugar and ½ cup Pineapple Juice in a sauce pan. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring it into a boil and simmer until thick.
- Brush ham with glaze and bake into the oven at 300ºF until bubbly and a little brown.
- To serve: garnish with parsley and cherries.
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