MAIN Home Life Cooking Ham

Planning a ham dinner for the holidays or for any special meal is a tradition that many families share. Whether the special day is Christmas, Easter or just a gathering of friends or family, a ham makes a great main meat dish.

Since ham is pork, you'll need to make sure to cook the meat thouroughly unless you opt for one of the ready to serve varieties.

For starters you'll need to decide what kind of ham to make. One popular choice, canned hams, are boneless and usually fully cooked. They may be served right from the can or heated. They come in a range of sizes with some of the fancier selections already prepared with honey glaze, wine or other marinades.

• Skinless, shankless hams are not in a can, but the ham is boned, skinned, and trimmed of excess fat and many are sold ready to heat and eat. Smoked picnic ham is a shoulder cut, cured and smoked. They also come ready to serve. Smoked shoulder butt is a shoulder cut, cured and smoked.
  
  
• Country salt-cured hams take more preparation time and have a very distinct flavor, but if you develop a taste for this Southern treat, you'll understand why it's worth the extra time to cook. Traditional Virginia hams are one version of the salty country hams that many enjoy.

Once you've decided what kind of ham to cook and serve, you have to determine how to prepare it. Are you going to marinate the ham, serve it honey glazed and baked with pineapples, marachino cherries and grapes for a treat, go with a traditional baked ham or pan fry the slices to serve up with gravy? What wine will you serve with the festive ham feast?

More about ham recipes around the Web:

No matter which recipe options you choose, the sites here will help with shopping, cooking and serving advice. These recipes for glazes and special ideas will make your ham dinner simple and simply delicious...

Ham Recipes - From honey baked ham with cloves, to recipes with a variety of sweet glazes, you'll find the most popular and traditional ham recipes here with complete ingredients, instructions and accompanying photos.

CD Kitchen Ham Recipes - This site has some good crockpot recipes for ham as well as casseroles and other unusual ham dishes in the more than 7 pages with more than 150 different ham recipes. You should be able to find one that is just what you're looking for here...

Abby's Easy and Simple Recipes - Ham and Leftover Ham Recipes - Abby has been collecting recipes from over the years from every source imaginable. Her extensive recipe collection includes a whole section on glazes, plenty of leftover recipes and traditional, mouth watering holiday suggestions..

Ham Recipes- All Recipes - A nice collection of visitor-submitted recipes including 5-star reviews.

also see -> Apple Pie | Mashed Potatoes | How to Cook Prime Rib

also see in Recipes -> Honey Baked Ham