Bake a Ham

Bake a Ham

1 ham
fully cooked or semi cooked whole cloves
1 can pineapple slices, juices reserved
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup good Kentucky bourbon - or apple juice if you don't use alcohol
 2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. prepared yellow or dijon mustard



With a sharp knife score your ham in about 1" squares. It is probably already sort of scored somewhat, but just make those cuts a little deeper in squares. Place a whole clove in every other square. You don't have to do each one, cloves go a long way and can be overpowering. Place the pineapple rings over the ham. Reserve the pineapple juice. The pineapple rings help hold the glaze on the ham and sweeten it. You can also stick a maraschino cherry in the middle of each pineapple ring for a pretty presentation. Preheat oven to 350. Mix pineapple juice, brown sugar, bourbon, Worcestershire, and mustard and spread over the ham. Pour about 1 cup water in the bottom of the pan. Cover tightly with heavy duty foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove and baste the ham again with the pan juices. Cover with foil again and cook for another hour. Turn the oven off. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN. Let the ham sit in the oven until it completely cools down. This does wonderful things to a ham that you cannot do any other way. When you take it out and uncover it, the ham will still be hot, unless you left if in there for a couple of days or something...lol. Sometimes I put one in the night before a couple of hour before bedtime and then turn it off after the two hours and let it just hang out in the oven all night long. Take it out in the morning and carve it. It's just perfect! There are two things that make this ham better than most, the bourbon and the cooking method. Don't change either one and you will be pleasantly surprised!