Root Beer Glazed Ham

PREP TIME:1 Hour
SERVES: 6

COMMENT:
This is a wonderful recipe to create your own special holiday ham. It is quite simple to accomplish, but I guarantee you will receive rave reviews with this dish. Try adding a few of your own secret spices.

INGREDIENTS:
6 bottles root beer (high quality)
1 red apple, sliced
1 green apple, sliced
1 cup red seedless grapes
1/2 orange, sliced
1/2 tsp cloves
cracked black pepper to taste
1 tsp file (ground sassafras)

METHOD FOR BOILING HAM:
Place ham in a heavy-bottomed black iron pot or dutch oven. Surround the ham with apples, grapes, orange and cloves. Add root beer and dust with cracked black pepper and file. Bring to a rolling boil and reduce to simmer. Boil approximately 1 hour and turn ham over and continue boiling until root beer is reduced to a thick syrup. Remove ham and set aside. Continue to reduce syrup until it is the consistency of molasses. CAUTION: Do not scorch. Remove syrup and place in a mixing bowl, allow to cool and reserve for later.

INGREDIENTS:
1 (5 - 10 pounds) smoked ham
1/2 cup root beer syrup (reserved)
1 cup Creole mustard
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup cracked black pepper
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of allspice
pinch of ground clove

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In the mixing bowl, combine all of the above ingredients except the ham. Using a wire whisk, blend all spices into the mustard mixture until well incorporated. Place ham in center of dutch oven and coat completely with the sweet mustard mixture. Bake uncovered for 1 hour. You may wish to decorate the ham for the table centerpiece. If so, use a sharp paring knife to cut slits on eighth inch deep diagonally across the ham. Continue in the same pattern from the opposite side until even triangles appear from the cuts. Stuff with cloves and, using toothpicks, secure pineapple slices or fresh strawberries to the top of the ham before baking.