- Jan 3, 2001
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Happy Easter everyone!
I've been to many an Easter dinner where my two favorite foods have been ruined due to poor cooking: ham and kielbasa. So, if you're doing the cooking tomorrow and you're not sure what you're doing, LISTEN UP!
Ham- Most any ham you buy is already pre-cooked, so you just have to heat it up. The problem is, it's a thick piece of meat (that was my nickname in highschool by the way), and if you heat it too quickly the outside will dry out. I'm a big spiral ham fan (a V shaped ham with a bone in the middle), but this will work with about any ham:
Glaze your ham: My favorite glaze is made by mixing dark brown sugar with well drained crushed pineapple, honey, and ginger ale. Mix them to make a paste and coat the outside of the ham. If you want to get fancy, you can also take some drained maraschino cherries and push them into place on the ham with cloves (pretty!)
Cook your ham at around 275F @ 10 minutes/pound. If it's a really big ham (like a 12 pounder) you can move to 15 minutes/pound.
When you take the ham out, LET IT SIT FOR 5-10 MINUTES! Otherwise all the ham juice squirts out of it, and let's face it, nobody likes a squirting ham.
To carve a bone-in spiral ham, place the ham on it's side and dig a long knife in around the bone. Cut the meat away from the bone and you will have 3 pieces- just slice the pieces and serve. Easy!
Kielbasa This is a traditional polish sausage---don't be fooled by fake Eckridge "polish sausage"- real kielbasa is going to be sold raw, and will be pink and white, and (hopefully) have a nice garlic smell.
Cooking kielbasa properly is a two stage process. It has to be boiled, then baked. I like to take the links and twist them into 2"-3" pieces, then boil them in a large pot for 30-45 minutes (be careful because the fat will cause the water to overboil quite easily). The kielbasa should turn a nice gray color. Remove from the water and let it cool. It will drain during cooling- that's OK, you want that.
When cool, transfer to a casserole dish and bake at 375F for about 60 minutes. The top layer should begin to turn a nice light brown color.
What this method does is removes a lot of the melted fat that is going to be caught inside of the casing, which dilutes the fantastic flavor (and makes it messy to eat). Serve with ketchup and an nice strong horseradish (not sauce- the real stuff!) for the full Polish experience
Have a good dinner!
I've been to many an Easter dinner where my two favorite foods have been ruined due to poor cooking: ham and kielbasa. So, if you're doing the cooking tomorrow and you're not sure what you're doing, LISTEN UP!
Ham- Most any ham you buy is already pre-cooked, so you just have to heat it up. The problem is, it's a thick piece of meat (that was my nickname in highschool by the way), and if you heat it too quickly the outside will dry out. I'm a big spiral ham fan (a V shaped ham with a bone in the middle), but this will work with about any ham:
Glaze your ham: My favorite glaze is made by mixing dark brown sugar with well drained crushed pineapple, honey, and ginger ale. Mix them to make a paste and coat the outside of the ham. If you want to get fancy, you can also take some drained maraschino cherries and push them into place on the ham with cloves (pretty!)
Cook your ham at around 275F @ 10 minutes/pound. If it's a really big ham (like a 12 pounder) you can move to 15 minutes/pound.
When you take the ham out, LET IT SIT FOR 5-10 MINUTES! Otherwise all the ham juice squirts out of it, and let's face it, nobody likes a squirting ham.
To carve a bone-in spiral ham, place the ham on it's side and dig a long knife in around the bone. Cut the meat away from the bone and you will have 3 pieces- just slice the pieces and serve. Easy!
Kielbasa This is a traditional polish sausage---don't be fooled by fake Eckridge "polish sausage"- real kielbasa is going to be sold raw, and will be pink and white, and (hopefully) have a nice garlic smell.
Cooking kielbasa properly is a two stage process. It has to be boiled, then baked. I like to take the links and twist them into 2"-3" pieces, then boil them in a large pot for 30-45 minutes (be careful because the fat will cause the water to overboil quite easily). The kielbasa should turn a nice gray color. Remove from the water and let it cool. It will drain during cooling- that's OK, you want that.
When cool, transfer to a casserole dish and bake at 375F for about 60 minutes. The top layer should begin to turn a nice light brown color.
What this method does is removes a lot of the melted fat that is going to be caught inside of the casing, which dilutes the fantastic flavor (and makes it messy to eat). Serve with ketchup and an nice strong horseradish (not sauce- the real stuff!) for the full Polish experience
Have a good dinner!
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