How to cook a baked ham. Video
Leg of meat is one of the most juicy parts of pork carcass, distinguished by its delicate taste. There are a variety of recipes that can be used to make it, the most spectacular of which is the baked ham.
How to cook baked ham: video recipe
Ingredients for making ham
– leg of meat weighing 1,5–2 kg;
– head of garlic; – salt, black pepper, dried marjoram; – 2 tbsp. l. not too thick honey; – juice of half a lemon; – sleeve for baking.
The composition of the spices can be varied by using those that go well with pork for cooking. It can be coriander, rosemary and more. Pork is good because it turns out fragrant even with a minimum of spices.
How to cook whole leg of meat
Homemade ham will be most delicious if you process it with spices 10-12 hours before baking. To do this, rinse the meat, dry it with a napkin, and then grease it with a mixture of honey, lemon juice and spices. You can diversify the recipe and replace lemon juice with orange juice, as a result of which the meat will acquire a slightly different flavor. Then, with a knife, shallow pockets must be made over the entire area of the ham, in which to place pieces of garlic. The denser the meat is stuffed, the more aromatic it will turn out. After that, the ham must be placed in a container, covered with cling film or linen towels so that the meat does not become weather-beaten, and put in the refrigerator overnight.
When the meat is saturated with all the aromas of spices, it must be placed in a roasting sleeve, securing the ends so that a completely sealed bag is obtained. If you want to get exactly baked meat with a crust, then with a fork or knife you need to make several punctures in the upper part of the sleeve, without them the ham will turn out to be stewed. A prerequisite for this cooking method is that the sleeve with the ham must be placed in a cold oven and only then turn on the fire. If you put the sleeve on a hot baking sheet, it will melt and lose its tightness, which will allow the juice from the meat to flow out. It is necessary to bake the meat at a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius for 1,5-2 hours. In the absence of a sleeve, you can cook meat in foil, in this case, the baking time of the dish can be shortened by placing a bag of ham in a preheated oven. Half an hour before turning off the oven, open the top of the foil envelope so that a crust forms on the ham. It is very simple to check the readiness of the meat: when piercing the thickest part of the piece with a knife, a transparent, slightly yellowish, but not pink or red juice should stand out from it.