I admit to being fascinated by the study of food traditions, especially at the holidays.

Here in the store we get an indication of people's food traditions by the purchases they make. We have noticed that our customers prefer lamb at Easter, with ham ranking a distant second in popularity. According to several trivia Web sites, ham is the traditional Easter favorite in the United States, but our customers' preferences confirm the cliché that Santa Fe residents do not follow the rest of the country.

The tie between Easter and ham is said to stem from a time before refrigeration. Hogs were butchered in the fall when they were plump from summer feeding, and the meat was cured in salt for six to seven months to preserve it. This meant the meat would be ready to eat in the spring, just in time for Easter.

These days, curing is done year-round, making ham appropriate for any season, whether for a holiday or work-day meal. Yet the popularity of serving ham at Easter remains — at least in most of the country. If you are one of those people who prefer pork to lamb, you can create a contemporary meal by applying a unique glaze to the outside of the meat, transforming the flavor into something as distinctive as your own personality.

Sealing in the yummies

Ham glazes — like the honey and mustard coatings that spawned well-known ham brands — were originally applied to cured ham to seal in the juices during warming. Most cured ham is already cooked and ready to eat. (Check with your butcher or read the package to be sure.)

But most people prefer to eat ham warm rather than cold. A cooked-on glaze provides a crust that seals in most of the juices when ham is warmed or reheated in a moderately warm oven.

One effective technique is to use a torch to set the glaze in layers, creating a distinct crust with minimal melt or drip when the ham is warmed. Start by slightly heating the surface of a fully-cooked, smoked ham. Apply a thin layer of glaze, then cook the glaze with a culinary torch to caramelize the sugars on the surface without drying the interior meat. Repeat this process, adding the glaze in layers to create a crust that seals the juices and flavor inside.

In the expanded facilities of our new store, we will have the ability to produce glazed ham using this method. In our present meat market, we prepare glazed ham on a limited basis by special order. Some of our more popular market-made glazes are honey with green chile, honey with red chile, honey with butter and cloves, and brown sugar with mustard.

Recently I have been thinking about the possibility of using chutney, orange marmalade or raspberry preserves for the sugar and combining it with herbs, finely chopped shallots or horseradish. Puréed tomatoes and onions added to a brown-sugar base would likewise turn an otherwise ordinary ham into a savory delight. We are limited only by our customers' imaginations and will apply any glaze that is requested of us.

Dem bones ...

You can prepare a glaze yourself that can be applied to the ham after it has been warmed or cooked, setting the glaze by briefly returning the ham to a hot oven. To make a glaze, start with some form of sugar — maple syrup, brown sugar or honey — and add herbs or other complementary seasonings. Glaze ingredients can be sweet or savory.

Before you begin your glazing adventure at home, though, consider the type of ham you will use. I recommend a quality smoked ham that contains the shank bone — known as bone-in. The meat benefits from flavor imparted by the bone during cooking.

At one time, people avoided bone-in ham because the bone was difficult to cut or carve around, but since the invention of a special machine with a helical cutter, hams are available pre-sliced with a single cut that spirals around the bone through the entire piece of meat.

Beware of hams that are heavy with injected liquid. These are typically lower in price, but the higher weight of the added liquid negates any cost savings and the meat, while juicy, will be less flavorful. Quality ham is firm and plump and typically contains less sodium.

An entire bone-in ham weighs about 16 to 18 pounds, enough to feed about 12 people. If your group is small and you don't want excessive leftovers, an alternative is a half ham weighing between six and seven pounds. The two halves have approximately equal amount of bone, and most of the shank muscles have been removed.

Even though ham is preserved by curing, it is still perishable and must be refrigerated. Leftover ham is best used rather than frozen since the expansion caused by freezing causes loss of liquid when the ham is defrosted. The result is usually dry and unpalatable meat.

Ham is never frozen at my house simply because it gets thrown into virtually every dish during the week following its original preparation. Even the bone can be used to create a terrific pot of pinto beans.

Spiral-cut cooked ham is safe to eat cold but if you prefer it warm, cover it with heavy aluminum foil and heat it at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes per pound. If you will be applying a glaze, remove the foil after this initial warming, apply the glaze, and increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees and cook for an additional 15 to 25 minutes.

Here is a recipe for glazed ham — adapted from a recipe by Bruce Aidells and Nancy Oakes originally published in Bon Appétit, December 2005 — that will provide you with the comfort of tradition but is decades away from the ham with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries of bygone years.

HAM WITH BOURBON-PECAN GLAZE
(Makes enough for a half, bone-in, 6 to 7 pound ham to serve 6 people)

1/4 cup apple juice
2 tablespoons bourbon
1-1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup pecans, toasted, cooled, finely ground
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon dry mustard

Rub ham with 1/2 cup of the brown sugar and place it on a foil-lined roasting pan. Cook at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes per pound — about 1 hour for a 6-pound bone-in ham.

Meanwhile, boil apple juice and bourbon in a small saucepan until reduced by half, about five minutes. Combine pecans, molasses, mustard and the remaining 1 cup of the sugar in a bowl. Add bourbon mixture, stirring to form a thick paste.

Remove ham from oven and increase oven temperature to 425 degrees. Rub glaze thickly over the top and sides of the ham. Return ham to oven and roast until glaze is deep brown and bubbling, about 15 minutes. Let ham stand for 10 minutes before serving. Drippings can be spooned over ham slices when served.