Autumn Jubilee continues today with a recipe for a wonderful meal for a brisk fall day. A slow cooked meal, ready for supper while sewing on a rainy day, this is one of my favorite things! Welcome new readers to my blog! You’ll see I do a variety of post subjects. So come along for a great meal, and a super giveaway!! Congratulations to Loris Mills who won the first giveaway of an Inspired LED Sewing Machine Lighting kit! Congratulations also to Diane H who won a Fat Quarter Shop $50 Gift Certificate! Be sure you’ve entered each contest on each post as they are all different, with a giveaway every day this month!! The entries for last Friday, Sunday and Monday’s giveaways are still open, so you have time to go back if you missed one. Most will be open for 7 days, until we get to the end of the month.
I had craving for a home baked ham last summer, and one thing I wanted to do was experiment with an idea from Milk Street about slow cooking. Christopher Kimball made a comment about not being able to overcook meats if the oven temperature wasn’t high. After all, you cannot get a roast to overcooked 250 degrees if the oven is only at 180. I wondered if my slow cooker would be a better choice than the oven.
Have you noticed most hams are already fully cooked? So all we need to do is heat them up. Cooking a ham at 350 is almost a guarantee that it will come out drier than it should. I know as I did that for many years until I tried my experiment, and boy what a difference! Now I had tender succulent slices like you get from a fine deli, full of intense ham flavor.
So, I got a shank portion half ham, and found out when I got it home that it wouldn’t fit in my slow cooker. LOL, best laid plans, right? Well, there is more than one way to do this, and you might not have a monster size slow cooker like I do. Anyway, first thing is to remove the skin if your ham has it.
Just use a sharp knife, pulling the skin away from the meat, and slicing through the fat layer. Remove large fat sections too, they aren’t needed.
All trimmed up, I have left about a 1/4-inch thick fat cap.
Now, place the ham in a roasting pan, cut side down and cover it. My mother always used a paper bag from the grocery store, but you cannot do that nowadays as the chemicals in the paper now are not food safe. So, use parchment paper to create a tent. This will help keep the moisture in.
Bake at 250° for about 30 minutes per pound. This 9 pound ham took about 4-1/2 hours.
Just look at this moist and tender, juicy and flavorful ham. Yum.
The real proof of the moistness was the next day, just as juicy for sandwiches for the holiday picnic.
But still, I wanted to do one in my slow cooker. So, just this past weekend, I got a butt portion half ham, thinking it would be small enough to fit.
There is a limit, the max fill line is 4-1/2 inches from the bottom.
And my ham is 5 inches, but that is easy to fix when the bone isn’t sticking through like it does in a shank cut.
I sliced about an inch off the small end (the top of the ham in the photo above), then placed the ham in the cooker. I put the cut piece next to the big ham. Add one cup of water to the cooker. It fit easier with the larger cut side up, and with the lid on the slow cooker this won’t make a difference.
I set my Kitchen Aid 6-Quart Oval Slow Cooker (Amazon affiliate link) on low for a four hour slow cooking. I like the programmable controls which will switch the cooker to a keep warm mode when the time is up. Plus, this method will give you a way to make a Thanksgiving ham to go with your turkey for large gatherings as most of us don’t have several ovens.
It actually took a bit longer to get my 8 pound ham up to 140 degrees, food safe for a fully cooked ham. At 4 hours it was only 130 degrees, so I let it go 30 more minutes. It might have come up to 140 during its resting time, but I don’t like to take chances. At 4.5 hours, it was 153, more than enough. Resting will bring the temp up another 10 degrees, ultra-safe, but not overcooked and still super moist and tender. If you don’t have an instant read digital thermometer, HERE are a few to consider. Taking a temperature is the best way to judge if the meat is done without overcooking.
Near dinnertime, I decided to make a wonderful side dish from my Milk Street cookbook called Shaved Zucchini and Herb Salad with Parmesan. With my mandolin, I made the zucchini ribbons, added fresh herbs and fresh Parmesan, then mixed up the flavorful citrus dressing with lemon, honey and olive oil.
The ham was done, and just look at all the juicy goodness!! I did not use any kind of glaze, as slow cookers don’t really work for glazes, but the oven method would.
Slicing up the ham, I placed the pieces back into the broth to keep warm.
Luscious, thick slices of ham with the light and refreshingly crisp zucchini salad.
I did substitute chow mein noodles for the hazelnuts in the recipe. I just don’t care for nuts. But you can make it as you like. The recipe is on the Milk Street website, and you need to subscribe to see it, or get the cookbook. There are some recipes that are free for anyone without a subscription, but subscribing is really inexpensive. For my readers that need gluten free options, this meal would qualify without the chow mein noodles. For hungry guys, add a baked potato or some mac and cheese.
Update note, the link for the Madam Sew Rafflecopter entry on Monday wasn’t working first thing, so email subscribers didn’t get the link. If you want to enter that giveaway, comment on the Block A post and use the link in the post. If you have already commented on that post, click HERE. The entries will be open Sunday, October 14th.
Yum, I’ll be having quite a few thick ham sandwiches in the next few days. I think I could eat most of this ham all by myself, given a loaf of artisan bread, some creamy butter and a week or so.
The wonderful people at Milk Street are giving away a copy of their newest cookbook, Milk Street Tuesday Nights. Visit their website for recipes from the show, and lots more. Register with your email address and get access to recipes for a short time as they are presented on the TV show. I am delighted to have them for Autumn Jubilee this year as I have been a Christopher Kimball fan for years! This book publishes on October 16th, but you can pre-order now on Milk Street, or by using my affiliate link with Amazon – Milk Street Tuesday Nights. The book has over 200 recipes that take one hour or less to make, many around a half hour!
To enter the drawing, just leave a comment on this post, then click on the button below to enter. Shipping to US residents only for this giveaway, entries open until October 16th. What is your go-to meal for weekdays?
From My Carolina Home 
Hi Carole! I haven’t been able to find a way to get you by email until the other day! And I also cannot post using my email. But here I am (and I’ll use an old email and see!) Tuesday is Taco night!
-Jean 💟
My go to meal is a simple macaroni and beef, known as “dirt and worms” in our home.
I like the “look” of the oven cooked ham best. Funny story about why we do things – there was a story about a woman who always cut the ends off the ham and her hubby asked “WHY” and she answered that her mother taught her. Inquiry with the mother was so it “fit in the pan”….no particular reason otherwise. Your post reminded me of that! Thanks for the cooking tips. I love sweet potatoes with ham. Makes for a colorful meal. Your salad looks like a good one when the gardens are flourishing and people are handing you veggies!
You really have some wonderful ideas; don’t know how you find the time.
Hi Carole, when I make ham in the crock, I put the ham on a bed of onions. We just bought the less expensive Lavatools thermometer and we love it. Works really well. One of our go-to meals is couscous bowls, I make the large pearl couscous, flavored with garlic. I set out different things to mix in (olives, peppers, peas, parmesan cheese, etc.), then everyone creates their own bowl.
Ham is my favorite meat! But being single I rarely cook it for myself. Thanks for posting the tips on how it can be done.
Not a fan of ham, but the zucchini parmesan salad looke interesting. Thanks for sharing!
You are so right that a decent thermometer is a kitchen requirement.
Week night go to here is an Iowa thing – a made rite sandwich. Basically browned hamburger meat crumbled on a bun with a little onion. The ham looks yummy and Christopher Kimball is a favorite!
I’m going to make the ham tomorrow for dinner. Thanks for sharing Milk Street. They have delicious looking recipes. I’m planning to make the Chilled Beet Soup soon.
Looks like a great way to cook a ham. Is Ham for Thanksgiving a southern thing? I had never heard of it until I married into a family who was half from the Carolinas.
Happy to enter for the cook book!
And also, I do have the Blueprint membership and enjoy the cooking classes too.
We generally do our Christmas ham in the crock pot and let it go thru the night (and wake up to the smell of ‘heavenly ham’ on Christmas morning)! If we cook it in the oven, we seal it in a brown paper bag … ever heard of that?! 🙂
As I mentioned in the post, never use a brown paper bag nowadays, the chemicals in them make them not food safe.
Yummy! I often cook ham in my slow cooker on a holiday to free up the oven. The zucchini salad looks great.
I have a big slow cooker so that Ham idea is tempting to try. We usually have it at Christmas. More day to day news….we had the crab salad again yesterday. It’s a staple in the house now. My DH told me to tell you thank you for the recipe AGAIN 🙂 You’ll probably be hearing that from him for years. LOL
P.S. My ‘go-to’ meal for a Tuesday night would probably be Vegetable Lasagna 🙂
And Thanks to you and to Inspired LED lighting for my win! I saw one of these recently at a quilt retreat. That lighting is sure helpful to my eyes!
Ground Beef and All Spice Potatoes. The ham looks delicious and thanks for sharing how to make it.
Tuesday night is for Tacos! Carla from Utah
My go to quick meal is Southwest Chicken Taco mix with rice. Can be served alone or on tortillas with fresh chopped lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cheese. Ready in less than 1/2 hour.
Our quick go to meal is probably enchiladas. We can all make it in our sleep, and everyone loves them, so its a pretty easy sell! We do our ham in the crock pot on Sundays, so nice to come home from church and dinner is all but ready. 🙂
Now I really have a hankering for ham. Looks delicious! Thank you so much for the fabulous giveaways, Carole and sponsors of the Autumn Jubilee. I am over the moon to have won the FQS gift certificate.
I like to cook ham and turkey in Reynold’s Oven Bags. They turn out juicy and moist. Tuesday is fast food as we are attending an out of town cross county meet. Thanks
I have found those oven bags really aren’t that good, if you take the temperature of the meat, you’ll see it gets overdone in a hurry. That equals dry leftovers.
I make onion crusted chicken for our go to meal.
I’ll have to try a ham in the crockpot! My family love to have pineapples on it with a glaze of pineapple juice and brown sugar. So I’ll have to try and figure out how to make that…may pop that in the oven, hmmm
Hello Carole, I have no idea what our Tuesday night dinner would be. I do not think that we have ever really got into any type of habit on meals. LOL especially over the past year…LOL. We do use our slow cooker for many meals though, especially during the hot months. Have a great day!
My weekday go to meal is lemon chicken.
Tuesday night is usually leftover night. A quick, reheat dinner.
I have slow cooked a picnic ham in the slow cooker and it has whole cloves and allspice and a little vinegar and sugar added–Yum!
Thank you for showing us another way to cook ham. My DH and I enjoy ham so will try soon. Just tried a new recipe, pork tenderloin with apples and sweet potatoes (some regular potatoes added for the man). It was good and really super as left overs. He put mustard on his pork while I used a little BBQ sauce for the 2nd meal. Very clean plates afterwards. ggg
Carole; Thank you for the Autumn Jubilee fun sewing and food recipes. I would love to have time to prepare recipes from the Milk Street cookbook…looks amazing! Tuesdays are Tacos or oven nachos for us.
Ham looks delicious! Will try this soon.
I’m going to try the parchment tent idea! Thanks!
The ham looks delicious! Thanks for sharing
My go-to meal for a Tuesday night is probably stuffed peppers in the crock pot. I try to have stuffed peppers all together in a freezer bag that I can pop into the crock pot so that dinner is mostly ready when I get home from work. Thank you
Your ham dinner looks fabulous; we love ham, too, and often enjoy it on Thanksgiving instead of turkey since we eat turkey and chicken so often. My go-to weeknight meal to cook up is what we call “Italian Goulash” which is ground beef, tomatoes, pasta, garlic, basil, etc. It talks little time once the beef is browned, but even faster to cook up now that I have experimented with putting the dry pasta in with the other ingredients in the pressure cooker. What a great time savings while I finish hand stitching a binding or ??? LOL
Sounds yummy!!
We had ham last night! I love the Archer Farms spiral ham from Target, it’s better than any ham I’ve ever had. The directions say to cover ham and bake 10 minutes per pound at 275. It comes out perfect every time! Then I divide the rest into freezer packs for future meals and casseroles. I love having it on hand!
Jenna
That ham looks delicious. My mouth is watering!
On Tuesdays, I usually do pork chops in a skillet since my husband gets home late.
Tuesday night is taco night around here! Sometimes beef, sometimes chicken, but always tacos!
Tuesday’s are burritos with chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and avocados on top with ranch dressing, hamburger, cheese, and refried beans on the inside. Love the crockpot ham, so easy!
Ham is my favorite thing! I will eat it here or there, and even with green eggs! LOL That looks like a fabulous slow cooker, and I didn’t even know they made one. Thanks for the link. I will have to put it on my Christmas list.
Mac & cheese with salad and braised beef.
Jasmine rice with lemon garlic chicken and salad.
I love this idea and will try it out soon.
Thank you Carole for your lovely looking recipes. Its quite warm/hot here in New Zealand at the moment. Thank you for your interesting blog and have a safe and happy Christmas!
I can’t enter the drawing as I’m in Switzerland but wanted to say thanks for posting about ham in a crock pot. Our ovens aren’t very big here so it was nice to be able to use it for the other sides instead of just the ham! I put cloves in the water (as I usually put them in the ham) and served with a brown sugar glaze. It was delicious and very juicy! Will continue to do this for the future. Thanks!!