Baked Ham and Apples

Christmas at the cottage. Year four. I could write the same opening every year — truck packed, drive to Thibodaux, Mama at the screen door — and it would be true every year, and the truth of it would be different every year, because the cottage is the same and the people are different, older by twelve months, changed in ways that only show when you compare the Christmas photos side by side and see that Luc is taller and Colette's face is longer and Rémy has lost a tooth and Mama is smaller.

Mama is smaller. I noticed this Christmas in a way I hadn't before. She's sixty-two and she's shrinking — not dramatically, not worryingly, but measurably. She's lost maybe an inch of height and a few pounds, and her hands, which were always capable and quick, are slower. The gumbo took longer this year. Not because the recipe changed but because the woman making it has changed, and the change is small and constant and irreversible, like the erosion of the bayou, and I can see it, and I can't stop it, and I respond the way I respond to everything I can't stop: I cook. I fix the wiring. I paint the cottage yellow. I hold the things I can hold for as long as I can hold them.

Réveillon was beautiful. Rémy stayed awake for the whole midnight mass again — two years running, which is a streak. He sat in the pew and held Mama's hand and listened to the hymns and I watched him watching Mama and thought: he sees her. He sees her the way Colette sees the cottage — with the eyes of someone who knows, instinctively, that what they're looking at is worth preserving. Seven years old and he holds his grandmother's hand in a church at midnight and doesn't let go. Some lessons you don't teach. Some lessons the child already knows.

Christmas gifts: Luc got a graphing calculator, which is the least exciting gift to anyone who isn't Luc and the most exciting gift to Luc, who held it like a holy relic. Colette got a professional sketchbook — leather-bound, thick paper, the kind artists use. She opened it and said nothing, just held it, and the nothing was everything. Rémy got fishing waders — kid-sized, chest-high, rubber. He put them on over his pajamas and walked around the cottage for the rest of Christmas morning. "I'm waterproof, Papa." Yes, cher. You are waterproof. May you always be.

Mama made the gumbo this year, slower than before, and I let her, because taking that from her would have been worse than any extra hour it cost us. But the ham — that one I claimed. I’ve been making this Baked Ham and Apples for the Réveillon table the last two years, and it’s become the thing I can do while she rests, the thing that fills the cottage with a smell that says feast without any fuss. The apples go soft and caramelized against the scored fat, and by the time midnight mass is done and Rémy is still waterproof in his waders and Colette is sketching something in her new book, the ham is exactly ready — patient and sweet and waiting for everyone to sit down.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 2 hrs 15 min | Total Time: 2 hrs 35 min | Servings: 10

Ingredients

1 bone-in half ham (7–8 lbs), skin scored in a diamond pattern
4 medium apples (Honeycrisp or Braeburn), cored and quartered
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup apple cider or apple juice
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch of kosher salt

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Heat the oven to 325°F. Place the scored ham cut-side down in a large roasting pan or Dutch oven. Nestle the apple quarters around the base of the ham.
Make the glaze. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the brown sugar, butter, apple cider, Dijon mustard, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and salt. Stir until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Do not boil.
Glaze the ham. Brush a generous layer of glaze over the entire surface of the ham, working it into the scored cuts. Pour the remaining glaze over the apples in the pan.
Roast low and slow. Cover the pan tightly with foil and roast for 1 hour 45 minutes, basting the ham and turning the apples once halfway through.
Caramelize the top. Remove the foil, raise the oven temperature to 400°F, and roast uncovered for 25–30 minutes more, basting every 10 minutes, until the surface is deep mahogany and caramelized and the apples are tender and lightly browned at the edges.
Rest before carving. Transfer the ham to a cutting board and let it rest for 15 minutes. Arrange the roasted apples and pan juices in a bowl or on a platter alongside. Slice and serve warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Baked Ham and Apples — What We Carry to the Table