Expert: Keith Patton - 3/16/2008

Question
I will be cooking a bone in ham.  I usually i boil in in cook and brown sugar with pineapple.  I want to do something different this year, but my concern is salt.  I don't like the test of salty foods.  How can i make my have baked and not salty?

Answer
Granny:

Is it a true salt cured ham or one of those new fangled hams that need to be refrigerated?

My grand father used make Virginia cured hams.  There is no way to get the salt out except boiling or soaking in fresh water.

If it is a store bought ham, none of that will be necessary, because they are not so highly salted as real cured hams are.

Since you didn't say if it was a true cured ham or a commercial ham, all I can say is soak it for a few days in water, changing the water often.  This will draw out the salt.  Be patient.

Try baking the ham and basting it with unfiltered apple juice.
Cut the top checkerboard fashion about 1/2 deep and stud the intersections with whole cloves.  Use a half gallon of juice and keep basting every 15 minutes until it is glazed and the juice is reduced to about 1 cup.  Strain the juice and serve on the meat as a sauce.

Keith