Whether it’s tailgating or homegating, fans of the Buffalo Bills are known to be elite tier when it comes to food. Wingin’ It returns for it’s eighth season of Mad Hatter-esque recipes, taking inspiration from the Buffalo Bills and their opponents.
Buffalo Rum Ham
I’m sure there’s other actual signature foods from Philadelphia out there I could make, but for this week I’m paying tribute to one of my favorite shows, and doing a Buffalo version of Frank’s rum ham.
I do have bad news for anyone looking to get drunk off
of ham, though. There’s essentially zero chance meat would soak up enough booze to give a buzz (and even less so once alcohol is cooked), so my variant is simply a marinade for extra flavor. Just be careful of all the dogs on the shore.
Buffalo Rum Ham
Serves: About 6
Active Time: 30 min
Total Time: 12 hours or more
Ingredients
1/2 cup hot sauce
1/3 cup spiced rum
1/4 cup pineapple juice
2 Tbsp molasses
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2.5 lbs pre-cooked ham (see below)
You will need: Large storage bag, baking sheet
- Mix together hot sauce, rum, pineapple juice, molasses, and ground cloves to make marinade.
- Add ham to storage bag.
- Pour marinade over ham inside bag.
- Refrigerate about 12 hours, turning periodically.
- Cook ham per package instructions (see below for what I did).
Wingin’ It Tips
I used a boneless petite ham, smoked and pre-cooked. As I noted above, the critical flaw in Frank Reynolds’ plan is that ham won’t absorb enough booze to get you drunk. That means the marinade might struggle to reach a lot of the meat as well. To solve that issue, I did my own spiral cut on the meat as pictured above. When I poured the marinade over the ham in the bag, I gently opened the spirals to allow it to seep in. I did the same thing every time I rotated it.
Since we’re using pre-cooked ham, how you cook it matters quite a bit less than most recipes I give you. If you want to use ham steaks, you might go with a quick pan sear and call it a day. You could use deli ham, then blot it dry and use it without cooking it at all. You get the idea, the recipe is really the marinade not the ham. If you’re curious as to what I did…
I baked mine at 275ºF for a little over an hour. This was just enough to get the internal temperature where you want it. I kept it low because I also put the leftover marinade in the baking pan. With the sugar content, higher temps could have led to burning and ruined pans. It also allowed me to baste and achieve somewhat of a glazed top.
If you’re looking for a sizzling hot meal, that may not be the approach for you. A higher temp with a foil cover would get the job done, and there’s nothing stopping you from an occasional baste with this method too.
