Nordic Roasted Ham

I watch quite a bit of New Scandinavian Cooking. This fast moving show gives you ideas, and entertains you with fresh local food and beautiful scenery. Once I caught a very quick snip of Andreas Viestad roasting a ham in fresh-made glögg. I missed most of it. I had no clue how much wine he put in or how he cooked it (temperature or time). But I had a ham in the freezer and some spiced wine from Minnesota in the wine rack. I decided to give it a shot with my own twist guided by many years of watching Andres in action.

Ingredients
1 4-6 lb. Ham Roast (cured/not cooked)
1/4 of mulled wine
1 heaping spoonful of honey (I used savory raspflower blossom honey)
1 tsp of dried caraway
Large strips of Orange Peel (One Small Orange - white part removed)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300° F.
2. Place ham in a covered ovenproof dish (dutch oven) fat side up.
3. Score top of ham in a shallow diagonal hatch pattern.
4. Pour wine over the meat.
5. Spread heaping spoonful of honey on the top of the ham.
6. Crush caraway in your hand and sprinkle on top of the honey-coated meat.
7. Put orange peel in pot.
8. Cook for approx. one hour. Uncover and increase temperature to 400° F. Cook for another hour or until the internal temperature reaches 150° F. (Overall, about a half hour per pound.)
9. Remove from heat and let rest. (The meat will continue cooking while it rests and get to the prime temperature of 160° F.)

I pull the meat from the dish and reduce the sauce on the stove. I sprinkle in some flour to thicken it up. (The amount depends on how much juice the ham added to the liquid volume). When I take the sauce off of the heat I whisk in a couple of pats of butter to make it even richer. 

Serve the ham with cranberry chutney, finely shredded cabbage (with vinegar and caraway), or mashed potatoes. 

Remember, always wash your hands and your preparation surface thoroughly before and after touching the meat.