Ham Slices with Pineapple

August 2021. I am 62 years old. Orange Mound gentrification accelerates, developer buys shotgun houses, community meeting. This is one of the weeks that marks itself on the calendar of a life — not every week does, most weeks are the quiet kind, the working kind, the weeks that hold the world together without anyone noticing. But this week noticed itself. This week demanded attention. And I gave it, the way I give attention to everything that matters: fully, with both hands, with the understanding that attention is the rarest gift a man can give.

The family gathered around this moment the way smoke gathers around a shoulder — drawn by the heat, filling every space, changing the flavor of everything it touches. Rosetta, Tyrone, community — these are the people who showed up, who always show up, because showing up is what Johnsons do, and the showing up is the love, and the love is the showing up, and the cycle doesn't break because we don't let it break.

I cooked, as I cook for everything that matters. The smoker received the news the way it receives all news — with heat and patience, transforming raw ingredients into something that feeds and comforts and says, without words, that someone cares enough to spend hours tending a fire for you. Uncle Clyde's steel drum has held every Johnson milestone in its smoke — weddings and funerals and birthdays and ordinary Saturdays — and this week it held another one, and the holding was steady, and the smoke rose into the Memphis sky, and the sky received it the way the sky receives everything: openly, without judgment, with infinite capacity for what rises.

Rosetta was beside me through it all, as she has been for decades, the constant in every variable, the harmony beneath every melody. She said what needed saying and didn't say what didn't, and the balance between her words and her silence is the rhythm of our marriage, which is the rhythm of my life, which is the rhythm of the smoke: slow, steady, transformative, enduring.

That week, with the community meeting still ringing in my ears and Rosetta steady beside me at the smoker, I didn’t need anything complicated — I needed something that smelled like home and tasted like reassurance. Ham slices with pineapple have been on this family’s table for as long as I can remember, sweet and savory and honest, the kind of dish that doesn’t ask anything of you except to sit down and eat. When you’re fighting for your neighborhood, you feed people something that reminds them exactly what they’re fighting for.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

6 bone-in ham slices (about 1/2 inch thick, roughly 6 oz each)
1 can (20 oz) pineapple rings in juice, juice reserved
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon whole-grain or yellow mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Maraschino cherries, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Make the glaze. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine 1/2 cup of the reserved pineapple juice, brown sugar, mustard, apple cider vinegar, black pepper, and cloves. Stir and simmer for 5—7 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and stir in butter.
Score the ham. Using a sharp knife, cut shallow diagonal slashes across the fat edge of each ham slice to prevent curling during cooking.
Sear the ham. Heat a large skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat. Working in batches if needed, place ham slices in the dry pan and cook for 3—4 minutes per side until lightly browned and heated through.
Add pineapple. Reduce heat to medium. Lay pineapple rings alongside or on top of the ham slices. Spoon the glaze generously over both. Cook for an additional 3—4 minutes, turning the pineapple rings once, until caramelized and fragrant.
Rest and serve. Transfer ham and pineapple to a serving platter. Drizzle any remaining glaze from the pan over the top. Garnish with maraschino cherries if desired and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Ham Slices with Pineapple — Tending the Fire When the Neighborhood Needs You