I almost never make a full sized ham or turkey during a “normal” week. I always associate them with holidays and for some reason it never crosses my mind to make them for any other reason. That thought process might have just changed though. When I was shopping at Aldi last week they had a special for $5 off any ham. That meant I could buy this gimonsterous ham for $6! So being the sucker-for-any-sale girl that I am, I bought one. We not only used the ham for dinner that night, but also for dinner two other nights that week (in a frittata and with some mac n cheese). Not to mention the lunches that it was worked into. I swear I got 4-5 meals out of my $6 ham!!
Cooking ham always confuses me. Most of the hams you buy at a grocery store all say “fully cooked”. So why do I need to cook it again?? I still don’t have an answer to that question, but my second round of cooking for this ham turned out well. I had to be a little creative with the recipe. I recently gave up refined sugars for Lent. No I’m not Catholic and yes I am crazy. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I’m still trying to stick to it. Most ham recipes call for at least a little brown sugar so I needed to come up with a sweet alternative. The great news is that maple and ham go together very well, so I used pure maple syrup as the sweetener and combined it with some sweet pineapple chunks. If you don’t have pure maple syrup at home, use brown sugar instead. Don’t use the corn syrup-filled version of maple syrup, its too sticky and watery. This recipe really could not be easier, perfect for your Easter dinner!
~Wendy
- 1 7-8lb ham, bone-in, spiral cut
- 1 16 oz can pineapple tidbits
- 1 c. pure maple syrup
- Empty the can of pineapple tidbits on the bottom of a slow cooker.
- Add ½ cup of the maple syrup to the pineapple and stir to combine.
- Unwrap the ham and discard any flavor or glazing packets.
- Place the ham in the slow cooker on top of the pineapple/maple syrup combination and pour the remaining ½ cup of maple syrup over the top of the ham.
- Cook on low for 5-6 hours, occasionally basting with the pineapple juice from the bottom of the crock pot.
Sounds good! Will try it- maybe cut ham in half and freeze part of it for another feast!
Guess I never thought of that!
I cooked it all and then froze some of the leftovers to add to omelets or pasta in the future.