We could always have (garlic baked) ham

My mom once made an unforgettable ham. Hard to forget mostly because she bought a massive ham for a family of three, and we were eating leftovers from the freezer for months. "We could always have ham," became a common refrain, and then a joke told with a sinister sneer "We could always have...... ham."

I remembered that ham the other day as I pulled my very own ziploc of leftover Christmas hambone from the freezer to use to make white beans.

My ham is unforgettable, but not because it lasts forever. My ham is delicious and fragrant and loaded with garlic. I came up with the recipe by mistake. Someone told me to poke the ham with cloves, and me being me I just assumed this meant cloves of garlic, not the spice cloves. But cloves are nice in ham, too, so I added them to the recipe.

GARLIC BAKED HAM

Ingredients

• 1 8lb bone in ham (adjust cooking time for larger or smaller ham)
• 20 cloves garlic, peeled (split larger cloves in pieces & count the pieces)
• 10 cloves 
• 1 small can pineapple juice
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp powdered ginger

Directions 

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2.  Rinse the ham, pat dry with paper towels, and place in a shallow roasting pan, cut side down.
3. Press garlic into the ham stabbing with a knife and putting cloves into the holes so that the tops stick out.
4. Press cloves into ham so that tops stick out.
5. Cover with foil and bake 1 hour 20 minutes (bake ham 15-18 minutes per lb - you want to bake it under the foil for 2/3 of the cooking time).
6. While the ham is cooking, mix together pineapple juice, brown sugar, mustard, and ginger.
7. Remove the foil from the ham pour pineapple mixture all over the ham. Return to oven and bake another 45 minutes, basting every 15 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and allow to rest about 5-10 minutes. Remove garlic cloves and slice.