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Has anyone tried Alton Brown's "City Ham" or "Free Range Fruitcake" recipes? They get rave reviews on the Food Network site, but those aren't very trustworthy. I'm planning to do both for Christmas, and I'm nervous.
Could you still do his "city ham" treatment with the scoring and the spritzed-on bourbon glaze if the half ham is already spiral-sliced?
And how many days does the fruitcake have to sit to be edible? There are only about six days left till Christmas--is that enough time if I start it now?
Here's AB's "City Ham" Recipe:
www.foodnetwork.com/food/rec...8,00.html
Here's his "Free Range Fruitcake" Recipe:
www.foodnetwork.com/food/rec...4,00.html
Thanks!
Could you still do his "city ham" treatment with the scoring and the spritzed-on bourbon glaze if the half ham is already spiral-sliced?
And how many days does the fruitcake have to sit to be edible? There are only about six days left till Christmas--is that enough time if I start it now?
Here's AB's "City Ham" Recipe:
www.foodnetwork.com/food/rec...8,00.html
Here's his "Free Range Fruitcake" Recipe:
www.foodnetwork.com/food/rec...4,00.html
Thanks!
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Seattle
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Re: Ham I Am
Mon, December 19, 2005 - 5:44 AMI tried the City Ham recipe back in July and it was well received. However the mustard flavor comes through reallly strong and not everyone at my party liked mustard. Just an FYI.
I'm thinking of using a different binder next time. Maybe a milder mustard or maybe melting the sugar and ginger crumbs with a bit of honey to make a glaze. -
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Re: Ham I Am
Mon, December 19, 2005 - 2:43 PMThanks, Michael!
What type of ham did you use? Half shank? Uncut or spiral sliced?
Besides the strong mustard taste (maybe I'll use a milder mustard), did the ginger crumbs work okay, or did it seem like it needed more of a "binder," as you mentioned? -
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Re: Ham I Am
Mon, December 19, 2005 - 7:34 PMI used a half ham - uncut and the shank end.
I followed the recipe on the food tv web site. You definitely need the mustard as a binder. www.foodnetwork.com/food/rec...8,00.html
I haven't found a substitute for the mustard yet. I may just go for a milder kind too.
However, one thing I would definitely do differently is cook it longer. My crust didn't hold together well. I pulled it when the internal temp hit 140, like the recipe states, but the crust less than crusty. Next time I'm leaving it longer until I'm happy with the crust.
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Re: Ham I Am
Mon, December 19, 2005 - 9:14 PMThanks again for the advice! I will experiment a little and post the results after Christmas.
Fruitcake, anyone?
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Re: Ham & Fruitcake
Thu, December 22, 2005 - 3:22 PMDefinitely recommend the ham, I've made it three times and every time it was a crowd pleaser. I used an unsliced ham though, from Safeway or Albertsons, I would not really recommend an already sliced ham.
I'm not fond of mustard but I never had a problem with the taste, perhaps because i packed the dark dark brown sugar on thick each time? This also tends to make a REALLY nice crust.
Good luck! I've not tried the fruitcake.
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Re: Ham & Fruitcake
Tue, December 27, 2005 - 2:29 PMI'm happy to report that I had an astounding success with Alton's "City Ham" (still haven't done the fruitcake, though!). I did indeed award it five stars, and I just posted the following to the Food Network reviews of this recipe:
Foolproof Delectable Ham!
12/27/2005 at 12:18pm
User: MEL from Seattle, WA User Rating:
We bought an 8 1/2 pound half ham (shank end) from a butcher shop for our 14-person Christmas Eve dinner party. We knew that 3 or 4 of our guests wouldn't eat ham, so we also cooked 2 chickens, plus a huge array of side dishes and desserts. Almost ALL of the ham was eaten, and we only had a few scraps left the next day! This is truly a foolproof recipe--we had some trouble with our oven temperature and the ham cooked much quicker than expected in the first part of the cooking, so we had to leave it out for a while. Then it took a bit longer than expected in the final part of the cooking, to get a good crust. It still turned out great! We used a blend of equal parts Gulden's spicy brown mustard and Grey Poupon Dijon with a tiny bit of yellow French's, but otherwise stuck to all the ingredients and instructions exactly. Don't omit the spritzed bourbon, brown sugar, or crushed ginger snaps--these are all esential! Next time I will buy a bigger ham so we have more tasty leftovers. I am definitely looking forward to some soup with that ham bone, though.
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