This week I ‘cooked’ a ham. Admittedly, this is probably one of the simplest things I could do seeing as how the ham was already cooked when I brought it home form the grocery store and I just needed to warm it up. While this task didn’t exactly challenge my technical skills, it did pave the way the way for my next recipe (ham and potato soup) and I actually managed to learn quite a few useful tricks.

  • First, if you want to avoid dried out ham, the Instant Pot is good way to go.
  • It is important to seal the ham well in foil or parchment paper to keep the flavour and moisture in and to prevent a burn warning (I have not yet encountered a burn warning, but it sounds scary, so I would like to keep it that way).
  • Most recipes I came across also included a honey or brown sugar glaze, but I plan to use the leftovers in savoury soup, so I skipped this step.
  • How long do you cook a ham in the Instant Pot?: The goal with pre-cooked hams is to simply warm them through without drying them out, so the basic rule of thumb is 2 minutes per pound on high pressure plus 10 minutes to the total time to account for the foil.

Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be delicious because, well, it’s ham.

Unrelated to this recipe, I learned another trick this week. I am partly amazed by its simplicity, partly ashamed that I didn’t figure it out sooner, but mostly just happy to know it, so I thought I would share: