Glazed Easter Ham

The story

Meat, dairy and eggs were all off the table during the old Irish Lent, so the Easter Sunday dinner that ended it was planned well ahead. Lamb was the prize, but not the only choice. Folklore records describe Easter tables with boiled bacon, cabbage and potatoes, corned beef, or a baked ham, and lists of traditional Irish Easter Sunday foods still name baked ham beside roast spring lamb and leek soup. A West Cork saying held that it was a great embarrassment to be without meat on Easter Sunday. On Holy Saturday Catholics took salt, butter and seed potatoes to church to be blessed at the Easter Vigil, and the blessed salt was later sprinkled on the Easter eggs. In Ireland the ham is a cured leg, or gammon, that is soaked, simmered for hours with vegetables and herbs, then skinned, scored, studded with cloves and glazed in the oven. Neven Maguire glazes his with honey and Irish whiskey. American hams come fully cooked, so this version heats the ham gently and then gives it the same cloves and a brown sugar and mustard glaze. Easter Sunday falls on March 28 in 2027; a ham this size leaves plenty for Easter Monday sandwiches.