Whole Ham (Bone-in)

[Richard]

Will be having a large family gatherine for Easter and would like to roast a whole bone-in ham, approximately 20 - 24 pounds.

Does anyone have any suggestions, i.e. temperature (considering 450F) and time/pound (18 minutes per pound?)

Any basting required?

My plan is to build a big fire for a few hours to build up retained heat within my oven and when at temperature place ham in very large roasting pan and wait.

[dmun]

Since hams are sugar cured they tend to blacken up alarmingly at the 450 level. The good news is that most cured hams are fully cooked out of the package, and you only need to warm them through.

Fresh hams are another story. A full raw pork leg will take several hours, and you want to start it at the 450 level and leave it in the closed oven (no fire) until the thermometer shows the temperature you want.

If you leave the layer of fat on the outside, no basting is required. It will be nice and moist.

[CanuckJim]

Richard, Dmun,

There's another way to approach cooking a cured ham in the WFO. Julia Child, in her Way to Cook, has an excellent recipe for braised whole ham. Basically, the ham sits in a wine bath and cooks slowly, at a low heat. You'd need a large turkey roaster with a lid to pull it off in a WFO. It's a bit different than a baked ham, but very tasty nonetheless.

Jim

[arevalo53anos]

Brined pork ham baked on WFO at 250°C by five hours.

Luis

[Acoma]

That ham looks so good