Molasses and Bourbon Glazed Chilliwhack Ham

I learned this recipe at one of Barbara-Jo's fabulous cooking classes/Sunday Suppers earlier this year.  www.bookstocooks.com for more information.

The  cookbook was Buttermilk: A Savor the South Cookbook by Debbie Moose.  

The guest hosts were Chef Glenys Morgan and Jim Wright (Director of the Vancouver Opera).

The hosts and diners discussed their memories of growing up in the southern US and the food and recipes their mothers made, which was wonderful. Their memories were mostly of the recipes being much plainer and the food being very fatty and a lot of it being generally unhealthy.  That certainly jibes with my memories of cooking 50 years ago, when the wide array of ingredients we have now was not available.  I remember that we burned off a lot of that fat walking to school through heavy snow, plus we ate a lot of fresh and preserved vegetables and fruit all year round. Nobody in our family had a weight problem and still don't and we all still love fatty food. Maybe it's the sugar and flour that are the deadly culprits, not the fat.

They used a lot more jars and cans in the mid-century period as I recall. Those were the days of Kraft, Jello, Freshie, Betty Crocker, and my mother's standby Bisquick which was a later invention. She made everything from traditional Mennonite bubbat to the new rage, pizza, out of that stuff.  She also made a lot of traditional recipes with very basic ingredients but she had perfected these recipes with technique.  Fried potatoes, hamburgers, and cabbage rolls  were amazing at our house.  Mum loved her shortcuts, whether it was using packaged food or her lazy version of traditional recipes (no knead bread, layered cabbage rolls).

One of my aims with my cooking research and this blog is to rediscover the older recipes, find authentic ingredients, and find the secrets to what really makes food  schmuck.  It is usually quite difficult to find good authentic ingredients and then to perfect the techniques because those old recipes had few ingredients and really relied on freshness and technique.

Back to Sunday Supper, for cocktails, we had a (rye) whisky drink, which I wrote down, and hope I can find at some point. It was good though. We drank, ate canapés and walked around the store, chatting and looking at books. 

The ham is another thing to search out. Probably takes a trip to a butcher or two to find the source of it.

Menu
Roasted Sweet Onion and Garlic Dip/whisky
Butternut Squash Soup with Lemongrass and Ginger
Molasses and Bourbon Glazed Ham
Potato Salad with ButterMilk Chive Dressing
Tex Mex Corn Pudding
Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream

The ham recipe was outstanding and the rest of the recipes needed adjustments in my opinion. Keep in mind that the chef was cooking them exactly as set out in the cookbook and for the first time.

Molasses and Bourbon Glazed Ham

Ingredients
Chilliwhack Smokehouse ham (see note above)
1/2 cup dry mustard
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tb. each of fennel seed, coriander, black peppers
3/4 cup bourbon
1 cup molasses

Instructions:
Score the ham in a diamond pattern.
Grind the spices, mix with mustard and sugar and put into the grooves.
Mix the other bourbon and molasses and use to baste the ham.