What's on Tap

Maple Glazed Ham

I’ll bet you thought this article was going to be about all the delicious micro-breweries we have in the Berkshires – but no – the taps are on the maple trees and the sap’s-a’flowin’. It’s maple sugaring season!

The traditional sugaring season extends from early February through late March but this year we had to wait a little longer for the weather to warm up a bit. Warm sunny days with below-freezing nights are the perfect balance necessary to make the sap run and the season officially began in Connecticut signaling the start of the “sweetest time of the year.”

The buzz among sugaring enthusiasts is that the longer the trees are dormant, the more sugar they make. That said, delaying the sugaring season by a couple of weeks should result in an even more delicious, sweeter syrup this year. Nonetheless, maple syrup producers have only about a five week window to gather and boil down the sap. If you see a little outdoor building with a stack spewing a lot of steam, chances are you’ve stumbled upon a local sugar shack.

Although we’re most familiar with maple syrup on pancakes or French toast, it’s also a delicious flavoring to use in place of vanilla extract. And it’s not just for sweet recipes. I like to use maple syrup in a glaze on everything from ham, chicken, pork, salmon and even carrots.

MAPLE GLAZED HAM

For the ham:
6 pound fully-cooked bone-in ham*
3 cups apple cider

For the glaze:
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, finely minced

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Place your ham in a roasting pan and pour the apple cider into the pan. Roast in the oven for 60 minutes.

While the ham is roasting, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl to make the maple glaze. After an hour of cooking, briefly remove the ham from the oven and coat it with the glaze. I like to use a silicone brush. If there’s any extra glaze, save it to put a final coat on the ham just before serving.

Return the ham to the oven and continue baking for 30 minutes. The maple in the glaze will turn it a sweet, dark brown while the vinegar, mustard and garlic add a savory balance.

Baste the ham with the pan drippings and put a finishing coat of glaze on the ham just before serving.

* Because the ham is fully cooked, you only need to reheat it in the oven. As it slowly cooks, the apple cider will steam and add some delicious flavor before finishing off the ham with the maple glaze.