Easter Sunday is a holy day as it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. There are many dishes served on Easter Sunday, such as eggs, hard-cooked and usually dyed or decorated. After the egg fight, those eggs are either turned into deviled eggs or egg salad for sandwiches. But these days, with the price of eggs, we might not find it as one of the traditional dishes.
Easter eggs always bring back memories of my elementary school days. We were asked to bring a hard-cooked egg to decorate on the last day before we got dismissed for spring break. A student forgot to bring his egg home and when we returned to school after a week, our room had a very strong, distinct odor of rotten egg!
Lamb is another traditional food as it dates back to the sacrificial lamb of the first Passover to Jesus being referred to as the Lamb of God. Lamb also symbolizes spring and new life. The French prepare “gigot d’agneau pascal,” a rich, slow-cooked lamb stew often served with spring vegetables.
Ham from pigs slaughtered in the spring and then cured is also a very popular main dish. It is less expensive than lamb so is more often the choice of many. Pigs are thought to bring good luck and prosperity and are eaten in the hope for the prosperous planting season and harvest.
Ham is either fresh, cured, or cured-and-smoked, with further variations like city ham, country hand and regional specialties like prosciutto, speck and Jamon Iberico.
Fresh is merely an uncured pork leg and cured ham is the pork leg that has undergone a curing process, usually with salt, sugar, and spices. In the category of cured ham, there is also city ham — a wet-cured, smoked or boiled ham — or a country ham, which is dry-cured and aged, resulting in a saltier and more pronounced flavor.
Cured-and smoked ham is a pork leg that is cured, either wet or dry, and then smoked.
Prosciutto is an Italian dry-cured ham, often thinly sliced and served uncooked.
Speck is dry-cured and lightly smoked ham from South Tyrol, in Northern Italy.
Jamon Iberico is Spanish cured ham, from Iberian pigs who are fed acorns and natural grasses, which are said to be the reason for their special flavor..
Black Forest ham is German, dry-cured ham with spices and cold-smoked.
Culatello is Italian cured ham similar to prosciutto, but made from the filet or loin of the hind leg.
Bayonne ham is a salty boneless French ham, named after the southwestern French port city of Bayonne.
Smithfield ham is a cured ham from Springfield, Virginia.
Throughout the Caribbean, buns and cheese are an Easter tradition and are a descendant of the hot cross bun.
The hot cross bun represents life and is deeply connected to the Christian faith. They are eaten on Good Friday to commemorate the crucifixion.
Enriched breads are found throughout the European countries at Easter. “Colomba di pasquale,” a sweet bread studded with candied orange peel and shaped like a dove, is traditional in Italy.
“Paska,” is an Eastern European egg bread and the Bulgarians celebrate with “kozunak,” a sweetened yeast bread that is braided and filled with raisins and sliced almonds. Lithuanians have “velykos pyragas,” Polish have “chaika” and the Greeks, “tsoureki.”
Spring vegetables that you might find available now are asparagus, artichokes, Swiss chard, fresh sugar snap peas, radishes and beets.
I like my baked ham with a sweet glaze to complement the saltiness of the ham. I don’t like my ham to be salty, so I brine the ham for a couple of days in apple juice. So I will brine the ham this Friday. This method of osmosis, besides making the ham less salty, also makes it juicy. On Easter Sunday morning, I remove the ham from the apple juice brine, score the ham into diamonds and stud the center of each diamond with a clove.
Turn the oven on to 325 degrees and for a 12-pound smoked ham, roast for 1-1/2 hours.
While the ham is in the oven, mix together:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup prepared mustard
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
Spread evenly over the ham and bake for another 30 -40 minutes.
Transfer the ham to a cutting board and let stand for 15 minutes. This slope hr juices to redistribute, allowing for a more juicy ham.
A popular local topping is guava glaze. You may not find guava jam or jelly on the shelves at the market his week so hopefully you have a jar in your pantry.
Guava glaze:
1 cup guava jam
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon mustard
Pineapple rings
Have a wonderful Easter on Sunday, hopefully with family and friends!
Email Audrey Wilson at audreywilson808@gmail.com.
