Slow Cooked Ham Hock In Cider

by on February 24, 2015 • Dinner

After a busy few weeks of traveling, I've been getting reacquainted with my kitchen, inviting Clara to wrap on her apron and join me at the counter.

Our Montreal winter has been bitterly cold and the snow keeps piling up higher and higher around the house. I'm sure many of you on the East Coast can relate. There's never been a better time to delve into comfort food, so we've been simmering pots of chili, baking bread and roasting vegetables by the tray-full.

This cider ham was the first dinner I pulled together for my family this week. It's from Brown Eggs and Jam Jars and, incidentally, this is the very first recipe I'm sharing on the blog from the cookbook. It's one of my favourites, and simple enough to put together while jet-lagged, tired, and suffering from a head cold. Be sure to click through for the recipe, plus a giveaway for a KitchenAid 6-quart slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Cider Ham from Brown Eggs and Jam Jars: Family Recipes from the Kitchen of Simple Bites

I developed this recipe with my traditional Sunday Dinner in mind, a make-ahead, no-fuss dish that could hold its own as the star of the meal. It does all that, and yields enough for leftovers, too. What more could you ask of a Sunday roast? Be sure to save the ham bone for Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup, another cold-weather favourite.

In the cookbook, this cinnamon-scented, mustard-crusted cider ham stars in an entire chapter on Sunday dinner, paired with Crispy Rosemary Roast Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts with Honey and Hazelnuts. Today, you get it as a preview of what lies between the covers of Brown Eggs and Jam Jars!

If you're a real planner….you may want to Pin or bookmark this ham for Easter. I know, I know, it's still a ways off, but I'm already dreaming of spring, so making a holiday menu plan isn't that unreasonable.

Somehow, staying in from the cold has its appeal, now that we can linger around the table with family and friends.

1 1/4 cups fresh-pressed apple cider (raw apple juice)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 Tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 orange scrubbed
7 pounds best-quality bone-in smoked ham (6-7lbs)
1 cinnamon stick

Pour cider into a 6-quart slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine maple syrup, Dijon, ginger and pepper. Zest the orange into the bowl and mix the marinade ingredients together.
Rub marinade all over the ham, using every bit of it, and place the ham in the slow cooker. You may have to trim the ham to make it fit. Just add the trimmings to the slow cooker as well.
Peel the orange and coarsely chop the pulp, discarding any seeds. Add the orange around the sides of the ham and tuck the cinnamon stick in also.
Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
To serve, transfer the ham to a platter. Cover to keep warm. Strain liquid from the slow cooker into a gravy pitcher and serve with the ham.

This ham will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Giveaway

So many of my go-to recipes are made in a slow cooker, both here on the blog, and in my cookbook, so it seems only fair to offer one for your kitchen, too.

KitchenAid slow cooker

Thanks to KitchenAid Canada, I have one KitchenAid 6-Quart Slow Cooker with Solid Glass Lid to give away to a Canadian resident (sorry, international folks, this one is nation-wide only).

To enter: leave a comment and tell me what you would make first in this brand new slow cooker!

That's it! Good luck to all.

Giveaway ends, Sunday, March 1, 2015 at 8AM. Winner will be announced both here and on Facebook.