How to Bake Buzhenina

Serves: 10

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 3 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients needed to make Buzhenina:

• One (8-10 lb) shank-end fresh ham, bone-in, rind removed and trimmed while leaving only a thin layer of fat intact
• ½ cup dark brown sugar
• ½ cup Dijon mustard
• 2 cups apple cider
• 2 cups light beer
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 whole cloves
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 ½ tbsp plain flour

Cooking instructions for Buzhenina:

• Warm up your oven to 450 degrees F.
• Make slashes onto the fat layer of the ham, using sharp knife, to make diamond patterns.
• Sprinkle fair amount of salt and ground black pepper over it and rub all over the ham to season.
• Place the brown sugar in a bowl and stir in mustard until well combined.
• Drizzle it over the ham and spread evenly to coat well.
• Position a rack in a roasting pan and place the ham on top of the rack, with its patterned sude facing up.
• Pour a cup each of apple cider as well as beer over it and throw in the bay leaves and cloves into the pan.
• Roast the ham in the hot oven for 20 minutes and lower the temperature to 325 degrees F before roasting it further for another 4 hours, brushing it with the cooking juice from time to time; cover the ham loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil to prevent it browning too much.
• Remove the ham from oven, once it is cooked through and its temperature rises up to 155 degrees F.
• Place it onto a wire rack, while keeping it covered with the foil and set aside for half an hour.
• Drain out the cooking liquid into a saucepan and cook it over moderate heat.
• Whisk in the flour until well combined and continue to simmer the gravy until it thickens considerably.
• Carve thin slices out of the ham and arrange them onto the serving plates.
• Drizzle the gravy over them and serve warm.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Last Updated on April 28, 2013 by