Slow-cooked ham makes embarrassingly easy Easter entree

For years, my single oven was stuffed with the foods of Easter as I tried to make all the dishes finish at the same time, sometimes “borrowing” the oven of a neighbor who was out of town to allow for more space.

Then I discovered a mighty secret that has changed my Easter-ham prep forever: I cook it in the slow cooker, which frees up the oven for egg casseroles, roasted asparagus or whatever else grabs my fancy as cook.

It’s an embarrassingly easy way to cook the main course for an Easter gathering. First, I sprinkle brown sugar in the bottom of a 5-quart slow cooker. Then I add a half-ham, up to 10 pounds, which sometimes requires a bit of cutting to fit it comfortably into the appliance – no squeezing allowed (food in there needs space). More brown sugar lands on top of the ham before the slow cooker is covered and switched on.

Three hours later – or six to eight, depending on whether I use the low or high setting – and the meal is ready while the oven is free for other foods.

Better late than never, but I could have used that discovery decades ago.

Now let’s move on to the close of the meal, when the ham bone is lying on the cutting board, a bit bereft and ravaged. (You do buy ham with the bone in, right? Because that’s where all the flavor comes from, as any butcher will tell you.)

With a few quick moves, I cut off any significant chunks of ham and refrigerate them to use later to finish the soup. Then I heft that ham bone into my biggest stock pot, fill it with water and bring it to a simmer.

Add the rest of the ingredients that will make up the stock – carrots and celery cut in chunks, with some celery leaves to throw in, an onion that’s been quartered, a few peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves. You can do all this in less than 10 minutes.

Simmer for up to two hours, long enough to squeeze every bit of flavor out of the ingredients, but not so much that you simmer away the liquid (add more water if the level drops too low).

And that’s it for making stock. Almost as easy – and painless – as cooking the ham itself. Refrigerate the stock overnight to remove the extra fat, then use the stock and the reserved meat for any ham and bean soup you like.

This story was originally published April 15, 2014 at 1:33 PM.