If you're in a hurry for a Christmas ham, this is simply the most amazing crock pot ham you will ever make or eat.
Ok, so I'm biased - but I had 5 other biased reviewers tell me it was pretty tasty also...
Anyway, this past week in all the craziness of trying to do holiday things with the kids but still get them
out of the house to make their presents, and cook, and clean, and sleep in there somewhere, I
lost my favorite crock pot ham recipe. It's true. I only make ham twice a year, and I only used that
recipe once last Easter. Now it's gone. Like it must have gotten into some papers where it shouldn't
have been and it got recycled gone. So I searched the web for it, but never found it. Well, not
exactly. Everything I found seemed to be just different enough that it wasn't what I remembered. We
will not comment on my memory these days, either.
So I found two that intrigued me, combined them both, and of course, tweaked them a little bit
based on what I had on hand. Here are the delicious results:
1 bone in ham, approx. 5-6 pounds (we get ours from a local farmer, so we know it's gluten free)
2 cups brown sugar
3 cups apple cider
1 1/2 cups maple syrup - divided - and use the real stuff, not Aunt Jemima
2 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 T. dried orange peel (I used the kind from a spice jar, but you could also use fresh or homemade)
1 t. ground cloves (feel free to add more if you like to your taste)
1-2 T. vanilla (I just used what was left in my little bottle)
Put brown sugar in bottom of a large crock pot. It has to be big enough to fit Piggy plus cover his little
self. Then place ham on top of sugar. However he fits best works just fine - no need to worry about fat side down. In a small
mixing bowl, combine apple cider, 1 cup maple syrup, pumpkin pie spice, orange peel, cloves and vanilla. Pour mixture over ham. Drizzle with remaining 1/2 cup of maple syrup. Cover, and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve hot, and drizzle with glaze from the
crock pot if desired.
This was quite literally melt-in-your-mouth good! Plus, it has all the benefits of doing anything in a crock pot. I know some of the ingredients may not be what you have on hand, but this is one of the few occasions it's worth getting those little extra splurges.
Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!
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