New Years Day At Almost Heaven South

Time to change header shots, and I thought I'd put this up so I could see it every day and drool a while longer.


My normal bedtime is around 9pm (don’t laugh, I get up early) and it’s been a few years since I last saw the ball drop, so New Years Eve parties are pretty much out of the question at Almost Heaven South. To compensate, we invited a few friends over New Years afternoon to help us get the year started off right with a little eating, football watching, visiting, and otherwise serious laying around.

Since it was a several hour affair, we wanted to serve food items that were available for a long period and required little attention from us so the items we provided were:

Pulley-ham for sandwiches
Hoppin Johns with greens (for luck & wealth)
Manhattan clam chowder
Reuben dip with rye bread

And our guests brought:
Swedish meatballs
Desserts
Drinks

My plan is to spread the posts over a few days beginning with the ham – which is too easy. We just used you basic supermarket on-sale ham half – a whole one works even better. We put it in a pan, cut side down, added a couple of beers (your favorite), covered with foil, and cooked at 250* to a 205* internal temp (about 8 hours) - basting a few times with pan juices the last 4 hours. I set it on three onion slices to keep it off the pan bottom. Then for serving, you just pull off a chunk – it’s too tender to slice (think pulled pork BBQ) – dunk it in the pan juice and enjoy.

We served it with Swiss and Gruyere cheeses, baby dill pickles, mayo, a choice of mustards including a homemade one using the following recipe, and some awesome marble swirl rye bread from Webster's Deli in Knoxville.

Homemade Mustard (makes a little more than a pint.)
From bknox, BBQ Central forum


6 Tablespoons Yellow Mustard Seed (Original recipe used 3 Tbsp)
5 Tablespoons Brown Mustard Seed (Original recipe used 2 ½ Tbsp)
1/2 cup Cream Sherry (I used Harvey’s)
3/4 cup White Vinegar
1/4 cup Cider Vinegar
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon White Pepper
1 teaspoon Tumeric
Pinch of Allspice


Put everything in a bowl and let sit overnight or longer. Pour it into a blender and blend until mustard like (I used the immersion blender). It has a little bite to it – almost as if some horseradish were added, so it doesn't take much, but I really like it.

The long slow cook gives the ham a unique flavor – tending toward barbecued - and it got many “best I ever had” comments. It’s been a few years since I cooked one like this and I’d forgotten how good it is – one of Bev’s favorites.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry