Thanksgiving musings

Cornfed

Hi, all. Happy Thanksgiving! I had a good one at my parents' house. Got to spend time with my parents, all my brothers, my sister in law, and my God daughter. Also got to spend a little time with my girlfriend's family which was nice.[p]Ate way too much and drank a bit. Now in the process of a couple evening drinks to wrap things up.[p]No outdoor cooking for me today, and in fact I wasn't the primary cook at all today. I did do a ham in the oven following a recent Cook's Illustrated article. In short, they suggested you buy a bone in spiral sliced ham to maximize potential flavor and juiciness while also making it easy to slice. They also had me soaking the wrapped ham in warm water for 90 minutes to bring up the internal temp before heating to minimize time in the oven and to attempt to keep things moist, and also had you cook it in an oven bag. And, they have you roasting at 250 to keep the difference between oven temp and meat temp lower. They claim all of these steps can lead to a ham which retains 50% more moisture than hams just blasted at higher temps. Roasted it to a little more than 100* internal temps then took it out and glazed with a glaze consisting of maple syrup, orange marmalade, butter, cinnamon, pepper, and Dijon mustard. Then back into a 350 oven the set the glaze, then more glazing and a rest and then you make a little sauce with the remainder of the glaze and ham drippings (...ummmm....ham drippings....).[p]Anywho, not as good as an Egged ham, but I think it's a decent method to achieve a moist ham.[p]Also did the usual Cornbread and Sage Sausage Stuffing from Julia Child. And threw together a waldorf salad for a specific request from my Mom, who must have been in the mood for a waldorf salad I also did the turkey carving, trying to achieve slices similar to those RTD posted the other day. Mine were nice, but not THAT nice![p]Anyway, a great time with friends and family, and some good eats! And watching my niece run around like crazy kept my eyes off that putrid Jets performance, which was an added bonus.[p]Hope you all had good ones.[p]Gobble gobble,
Cornfed