Tjuz.com: Gluten Free Baked Ham

Okay, so it's Christmas. This year I volunteered to make the baked ham for the greater family. I'm feeding about 20 people, so I've cooked an extra large 10.3kg ham this year.
Okay - so let's be honest with each other. Christmas is about good will to all mankind, the baby Jesus and yeh...showing off to your relatives that yes you can cook and do a damn good job of it too. So this was how I spent my Christmas Eve 2009 :-). This is a really simple recipe which I think anyone can follow. Being such a big ham it took 2 hours to cook at a relatively low 160 degrees celcius.

Ingredients:

1 x Gluten Free Ham
1 x packet of Cloves
1 x bottle of pure Maple Syrup
8 x teaspoons of a mild Dijon Mustard.

Yep... that's it... Simple is good :-)

Method:

This might sound silly, but before you turn the oven on, just test that your ham fit's in the baking tray and that it fits in the oven (my big ham just squeezed in).
Pre heat your oven the 160 degrees celcius.
Wash your hands really well.
Firstly you need to remove the thick leathery skin from the leg.
Slide your fingers just under the surface of the skin and gently rub your finger back and forth while gently pulling the skin away with the other hand.

It's important you take your time and do it slowly over a few minutes because your baked ham is all about the look. It's also important you don't trick yourself into taking all the fat off. You want to leave the think white layer of fat on the ham by removing just the skin.

Next, lightly score the ham in a cross cross pattern with a sharp knife. You only need to cut through the fat layer.

Okay, so yes I wanted the ham to look like... "wow"! So I slowed down and took my time.
I found that two pieces of my son's hot wheels trick tracks bent around the ham just right and gave me nice straight lines that were exactly one inch apart. (I disinfected them first). :-)

Press a clove pod into the centre of each square to form a lovely grid patten.
Wrap some aluminium foil around the leg bone as you don't want it to burn.

Preparing the glaze:

Because my ham was large, I used a whole 250ml bottle of maple syrup. For a smaller ham I would probably only have used half a bottle and half the mustard.
In a small mixing bowl add the maple syrup and 8 heaped teaspoons of mustard. Then beat it with an egg whisk or a fork for 1 minute until it's creamy.
Now it's time to baste the ham...

Basting the ham:

Line your baking tray with several layers of aluminium foil (It makes washing up so much easier)
Place your ham in tray.
Start with the under side (it will only get basted the once) apply a thick liberal coating of the glaze syrup using a basting brush. Carefully flip it over and apply to the top as well.
Place your ham in the oven
30 minutes - remove from the oven and baste (using 1/4 of the glaze mix) then return to the oven.
60 minutes - remove from the oven and baste (using 1/4 of the glaze mix) then return to the oven.
90 minutes - remove from the oven and baste (using 1/4 of the glaze mix) then return to the oven.
Remove your ham after two hours (or when golden brown).