Nitrite-Free Holiday Ham – 4 Recipe Ideas

BAKED HAM WITH CLOVES & BRUSSEL SPROUTS

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut 3 cups of Brussel sprouts in half & cut 1 russet potato & 2 carrots the same size as Brussels, then toss in a good coating of olive oil and salt. Lay these on the bottom of a roasting pan or cookie sheet.

Score the outside of the MCLEAN nitrite free ham in diagonal crisscross cuts about ¾” deep and insert a clove at every cross or intersection. This is a traditional way to prepare a ham and will add a nice clove flavor.

Make your glaze sauce and baste the ham generously with it.

Glaze: Warm a 1/3 cup of melted butter, 1/3 cup of honey, ½ tablespoon of Dijon mustard (yellow mustard works too) and 2 tablespoons of orange juice until smooth.

Place the basted ham in the middle of a roasting pan on top of the veggies. Bake for 30-40 min until veggies are tender. Let rest for 5 min. & baste ham and veggies with drippings from pan. Remove cloves. Slice ham into steaks and serve with veggies.

HAWAII INSPIRED PINEAPPLE & ONION HAM

Some people hate the idea of eating fruit with meat. This recipe is NOT for them. For the rest of us, this one is a crowd pleaser! Yum Yum!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

In a frying pan on medium heat add 3 tablespoons of butter plus a teaspoon of salt and sauté 1 coarsely chopped onion and 1 can of chopped pineapple with juice. Once the onions are cooked set aside.

Score your ham in slices 1” deep about 3/4” apart, but don’t slice right through. Place in an oiled roasting pan. Take your pineapple onion mixture and stuff into the scored cuts between each ham slice.

Bake the ham for 30 min (check it after 20 minutes & baste the ham from the drippings if it seems dry).

Serve this over a bed of rice and garnish with chopped green onion (option to include a side of soy sauce).

SOUTHERN BBQ HAM & YAM

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Take 2-3 yams and cut into ½” thick medallions and toss in olive oil and salt. Lay the yams over the base of a roasting pan. Cover the bottom entirely.

Take the ham and score it in crisscross cuts about ½” deep. Place ham on top of the yams and then cover it in your FAVOURITE BBQ sauce (we love Dad’s Organic BBQ sauce).

Bake for 30 minutes (check it after 20 minutes. If it seems dry add more BBQ sauce).

Serve this ham dish with a savory Caesar salad (we like to mix 50% romaine and 50% finely chopped kale). This dish also works well with rice.

SPINACH & HAM STEAKS WITH HOLLANDAISE

This recipe is fast, easy and presents well. The hardest part is the hollandaise sauce but we have a trick to make that sauce fast without all the fuss, plus as another timesaver you can use the microwave to heat the ham instead of the oven.

Cut your ham into 1” thick ham steaks and set aside.

Cook a large container of prewashed chopped spinach or four bunches of fresh spinach. Be sure to wash thoroughly if fresh.

Oil the base of a low roasting pan. Layer a slice of ham then spinach, shingling the slices until the roasting pan is covered. Sprinkle salt over the spinach.
Heat for 20 minutes in your oven at 325 degrees F.

While the ham is cooking, make the hollandaise sauce. There are tons of recipes on the internet. Or you might have your own recipe. Here’s our secret sauce:

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan on low heat, and whisk in 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise and 2 tablespoons of cream. Basically, use equal amounts of the above and increase if you want more sauce. Whisk together until smooth and turn off heat. Add a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon.

When serving, pour this sauce over the ham and spinach “steak”, then sprinkle lemon zest and finely chopped chives.

If you’re not afraid of carbs then serve ham steaks over English muffins like a traditional benny or serve with sourdough toast or baguette on the side to soak up the extra sauce.

Add eggs or potato hash if you like. This can be brunch or dinner!