Fall Apart Fresh Ham Roast

Rene Cleveland

1. Add 3/4 a cup salt and 3/4 cup sugar to a large pot with 3 cups hot water.
2. Stir mixture till salt and sugar are dissolved.
3. Then, fill your pot with cold water, enough to totally cover your ham.
4. Cover the brine and ham pot with plastic wrap (or foil). Soak the raw ham in your brine in the refrigerator for 3 - 6 hours.
5. Remove the roast from the fridge and rinse it with fresh water. Dry your roast with a paper towel napkin.
6. Prep your ham! Cut the top fat layer in a diamond pattern or in parallel lines for seasoning!
7. Preheat oven to 350º
8. Place ham into a 13×9 inch baking dish.
9. Season generously with salt and pepper on all sides of your ham roast. Make sure to rub the seasoning into the diamond-shaped or parallel lines cup on the fat layer.
10. Add 2 - 3 cups of cold water to the baking pan... The water level needs to come up about 1 inch on the sides of your roast.
11. Tightly cover your shallow roasting pan or baking dish with foil to seal in steam.
12. Place prepared roast into the oven for 2 hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 160º or 195 degrees for fall-apart ham. (For food safety make sure your ham reaches at least 145 degrees internally!
13. After about 2 hours of roasting, (when ham reaches 160-195 internal temp) remove the roast from the oven.
14. Turn the oven temperature up to 450º
15. Remove foil from pan.
16. Mix maple syrup and balsamic vinegar and bast roast with that.
17. Place ham roast in the oven, and set the timer for 10-15 minutes of cook time. Baste roast every 5 minutes or as often as you like at this stage of cooking!
18. After 10-15 minutes, turn the ham roast over and baste the other side, roast for another 10-15 minutes to brown both sides. (The water will ALMOST be cooked out, but there should be a little left for basting before serving.)
19. After browning, remove your roast from the oven, and let it cool for at least 10 mins.
20. For best results, use a spoon and take the remaining liquids from the bottom of your baking dish and cover your baked ham roast with them. This gives the roast back all those yummy flavors that have cooked down through the roasting process!
21. Remove roast from the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes before cutting! Don't skip this step!