I’m one of those people that associates holidays with certain types of food. Thanksgiving=turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce; St. Patrick’s Day = Corned beef boiled potatoes and cabbage. Easter then is… no surprise… ham. There’s a particular recipe I’m actually quite fond of in Nigella Lawson’s Feast: Food to Celebrate Life for a Coca Cola Ham. Braising the ham in Coke reduces the salt content, softens the meat and adds a pleasant sweetness that’s simply irresistible.
The problem with ham of course is that they tend to come in 20lbs hunks and are not so conducive to NYC apartment cooking. My solution, while quite unhealthy, tastes better than ham, comes in any size you want and is cheaper than ham. I picked up a 3.5 lbs slab of smoked bacon from my favorite butcher Florence Prime Meats for around $13.50 and after a few hours braising in 275 degree oven, it came out mellow, melty and delicious. I’ve adapted Nigella’s recipe for this blog.
Ingredients
- 2 - 3 pounds bacon slab of smoked with skin
- 3 tablespoons cherry jam
- 1/4 Cup cherries dried
- 1 half vanilla bean split in lengthwise
- 15 cloves whole
- 1 Granny Smith apple peeled and sliced
- 1 cabbage small head of cored and shredded
Steps
- Put the bacon in a large bowl and cover with water. Put it in the fridge overnight to reduce the amount of salt.
- Put the rack in the lower position and preheat your oven to 275 degrees.
- Place the bacon into a heavy pot that it will fit snugly into (you may want to cut it into 2-3 smaller pieces). Add the jam, vanilla, cloves, and cherries and pour enough Coke over to cover the pork.
- Bring it to a boil over the stove, cover and put it in the oven until the meat is fork tender (about 3 1/2 to 4 hours).
- Remove the bacon from the braising liquid and place it skin-side up on a rack over a baking sheet and tent with foil.
- Skim off the fat from the braising liquid and strain half of it into a sauce pan. Boil this until it is a nice syrupy sauce.
- Put the cabbage and apples into the other half and simmer until both are tender about 30-40 minutes
- When you're ready to serve, move the rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Uncover the bacon and put it in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the the skin is nice and crispy.
- Serve immediately with reduced braising liquid drizzled on top along with some of the braised cabbage and apples.
Notes:
This works really well with Dr. Pepper too. And I add some cherries (pitted) that get mashed and worked into the marinade and sauce. Delicious!
Great idea James, thanks for sharing.
Cherry coke braised bacon sounds so good!
This works really well with Dr. Pepper too. And I add some cherries (pitted) that get mashed and worked into the marinade and sauce. Delicious!
Great idea James, thanks for sharing.
Cherry coke braised bacon sounds so good!
oh my god.
coke and bacon.
you’ve shown me the way to the promised land.
when are you going to put up a pain perdu no-recipe?
Now I know what to make you the next time you’re in town;-)
As for pain perdu, I’ll have to do a bit of research on that one.
oh my god.
coke and bacon.
you’ve shown me the way to the promised land.
when are you going to put up a pain perdu no-recipe?
Now I know what to make you the next time you’re in town;-)
As for pain perdu, I’ll have to do a bit of research on that one.
Sounds very good, but going to try with an affordable (usually under $10.00), and reasonably-sized Pernil. Very easy to obtain at any local supermarket and just pure pork, so no bacon additives like those usually contained in bacon or ham. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE bacon, but Pernil is a nice roast and it also has a skin like bacon that crisps wonderfully, and I think would be great with this Cherry Cola glaze. Thank you for the recipe idea. If possible, I’ll update with results as I will be making this upcoming weekend.
Hi Eric, good luck! If you haven’t made it yet, you may want to cure the roast with some salt for a day or two. This will season it to it’s core while removing excess liquid from the meat.
Want to update my post by saying this worked perfectly with a Pernil (Picnic) roast. I used a 5 lb. roast, so I kept recipe measurements the same, as some of the weight would be bone. Thanks for the tip, I decided to brine my roast (the skin sliced with a diamond pattern beforehand) in a salted water bath mixed with a can of the soda I was cooking with (cherry cola – not coke). To the brine I also added Bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, mustard seeds, chopped dried cherries, sliced lemon (to cut some of the sweetness), and cloves… Read more »