Ham Braised in Coca-Cola with Dijon Brown Sugar Glaze
An entirely unique and Southern way to cook a ham for special occasions, like New Years Day Brunch, Easter or Christmas Dinner.
Coca-Cola was invented in Atlanta, Georgia where their worldwide headquarters resides to this day. You might think that braising your Ham in Coke would cause it to be sickeningly sweet, but you won't find that to be the case. This is just an incredibly easy but unique way to prepare a Ham that will give you a flavor you cannot get any other way.
And to be clear, you cannot use any other cola besides Coca-Cola. And by that I mean, you cannot use any Coke besides Classic Coke. Diet Coke will not work, so if you have an aversion to sugar, this isn’t the recipe for you, although the amount of residual sugar left on the Ham because of the Coca-Cola is minute compared to the brown sugar in the glaze.
The world of hams can be confusing, so you want to be sure you get a smoked, cured, bone-in ham from the shank, sometimes called a half-ham. This is the bottom of the hog’s hind leg, as opposed to the other half-ham referred to as the butt-end. The shank is generally meatier, leaner, easier to carve because the femur bone runs straight through the center of it, and is the classic ham shape that most people recognize.
Bear in mind:
A smoked half ham shank is different from a City Ham, which has been brined or salt cured, de-boned and sometime sold in butcher’s netting.
A smoked half ham shank is also different from a Country Ham, which is dry-cured, aged and uncooked. But these are usually unavailable at most grocery stores and mostly sold only in specialty stores or by mail-order.
Don’t get a Fresh Ham, which is uncooked as the name implies; it is essentially a pork roast. I rarely see these in the grocery store, however.
Finally, don't get a spiral-sliced ham as the slices will fall apart during the braising process.
Ham Braised in Coca-Cola with Dijon Brown Sugar Glaze
Ingredients
- 8 to 10 pound smoke-cured bone-in half-ham, shank
- 2 medium sweet onions, sliced into thin rings (like Vidalia or Texas-1015)
- 16-32 ounces Coca-Cola® (depending on the size of your ham and cooking vessel)
- 1- 1/2 tbsp molasses
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
Instructions
- Put the ham in a large Dutch oven.
- Place the onion rings around and on top of the ham.
- Pour the Coca-Cola over all, enough to come up half-way to the top of the ham.
- Cover the Dutch oven, bring to a boil on high heat, then turn the heat down to keep the liquid at a heavy simmer, cooking the ham 45 to 60 minutes.
- Turn the ham over and continue to cook covered another 45 to 60 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 500°F.
- Remove the ham from the Dutch oven, and reserve 1/4 cup of the liquid in a small mixing bowl.
- Add the molasses, Dijon mustard, brown sugar and ground cloves to the liquid and whisk to combine.
- Baste the top of the ham with the glaze and pop in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Baste again and return to the oven for another 10 minutes until the glaze becomes brown and bubbly.
- Let the ham rest for 10 minutes before carving.
