Chef Joost
Aardappelschotel met Gehakt
A plain name for a quietly clever dish: fresh mince, sweet fried onion, nutmeg, and mashed potato baked until the top goes golden and the table goes silent.
Culinary Explorer
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Beenham met Honing-Mosterdglazuur
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The bone is not decoration here: it is the old promise that a feast should taste of patience, mustard, honey, and the family table gathered close.
Main Dishes
Dutch
Christmas
Holiday
Special Occasion
20 min
Active Time
2 hr 30 min cook•2 hr 50 min total
Yield8 to 10 servings
In my grandmother's second notebook, the festive dishes are not written with ceremony. They are written with margins: who came, who brought bread, who preferred the end slice, who took home the bone for soup. Beenham belongs to that kind of page. Not grand in the theatrical sense, but unmistakably a feast, because the whole table has to make room for it.
The name already tells you the truth plainly. Been is bone, ham is ham, and the point is exactly there: the bone carries flavour through the meat and gives the cook a handle on generosity. But let me tell you a secret. The honey-mustard glaze is not a sweet coat to hide ordinary pork. It is a Dutch argument in lacquered form: sharp mustard, floral honey, a little vinegar, a little clove, sweetness kept honest by bite.
This is Christmas cooking in the sensible northern way. Most of the work has already been done by the butcher, through curing and gentle cooking, so your task is not to perform. Your task is to warm the ham slowly, baste it until the glaze darkens and shines, and stop before the meat dries out. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. Bring the braadpan to the table if you like, carve thick slices, and save the bone. A dish without its story is half a meal, and soup made from the bone is the next chapter.
Beenham means ham on the bone, a feast cut from the pig's hind leg, and it reflects the Dutch winter tradition of preserving pork after the late-autumn slaughter for use during the December holidays. Mustard has long been a Dutch table staple, with regional traditions surviving in places such as Groningen and Doesburg, while honey-mustard glazes became a practical modern holiday finish for cured ham. The dish is not the property of one province, but its logic is thoroughly Dutch: thrift in the curing, sharpness in the mustard, and generosity in the carving.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
bone-in cured cooked ham
Quantity
1, 3 to 4 kg
apple juice or dry cider
Quantity
250ml
bay leaves
Quantity
2
whole cloves
Quantity
8
plus extra for studding if desired
Dutch mustard, preferably coarse Groningen or Doesburg-style mustard
Quantity
150g
runny honey
Quantity
120g
dark brown sugar or donkere basterdsuiker
Quantity
2 tablespoons
apple cider vinegar
Quantity
2 tablespoons
neutral oil
Quantity
1 tablespoon
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1 teaspoon
ground mace
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
salt (optional)
Quantity
only if needed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| bone-in cured cooked ham | 1, 3 to 4 kg |
| apple juice or dry cider | 250ml |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| whole clovesplus extra for studding if desired | 8 |
| Dutch mustard, preferably coarse Groningen or Doesburg-style mustard | 150g |
| runny honey | 120g |
| dark brown sugar or donkere basterdsuiker | 2 tablespoons |
| apple cider vinegar | 2 tablespoons |
| neutral oil | 1 tablespoon |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1 teaspoon |
| ground mace | 1/2 teaspoon |
| salt (optional) | only if needed |
Equipment Needed
- •Large roasting pan
- •Pastry brush
- •Meat thermometer
- •Carving knife
Instructions
- 1
Temper the ham
Take the ham from the refrigerator 1 hour before roasting. Pat the surface dry. A cold ham goes into the oven sulking and comes out uneven; a tempered one warms gently all the way to the bone.
- 2
Score the fat
Heat the oven to 160C. If the ham has a thick fat cap, score it in shallow diamonds, cutting through the fat but not into the meat. Stud a few diamonds with cloves if you like, but don't turn the poor thing into a pincushion. Clove should whisper, not lecture.
- 3
Begin roasting
Set the ham in a roasting pan with the apple juice or cider, bay leaves, and 8 cloves. Cover loosely with foil and roast for about 1 hour 45 minutes, basting once or twice with the pan juices. You are warming and moistening here, not trying to cook the life out of what the butcher has already cured.
- 4
Make the glaze
While the ham roasts, stir together the mustard, honey, brown sugar, vinegar, oil, black pepper, and mace. Taste it. It should be sweet first, then sharp, then warm with spice. If it tastes flat, add a spoon more vinegar before you add salt; cured ham brings plenty of salt on its own.
Use a mustard with grain and backbone. A very mild yellow mustard makes the glaze sweet and sleepy, and Christmas lunch has enough sleepy relatives already. - 5
Glaze and lacquer
Remove the foil and brush the ham generously with glaze. Raise the oven to 190C and roast for 30 to 40 minutes more, brushing with glaze every 10 minutes, until the surface is deep amber, glossy, and sticky at the edges. If the glaze darkens too quickly, lower the oven again; honey burns before it apologises.
- 6
Rest and carve
Move the ham to a board and rest it for 20 minutes before carving. Slice thickly across the grain, spooning a little of the glossy pan glaze over the meat. Save the bone for pea soup or brown bean soup; throwing it away would be poor manners toward the pig and toward history.
Chef Tips
- •Ask the butcher for a cured, cooked bone-in ham, not a raw fresh pork leg. If you start with raw pork, the timing and food safety rules change completely.
- •The ham is ready to serve when the centre reaches 60C if fully cooked, or the temperature recommended by your butcher. Use a thermometer near the bone but not touching it.
- •Coarse Dutch mustard gives the glaze its proper grain and bite. Groningen mustard is sharper; Doesburg-style mustard is rounder. Either one makes sense at this table.
- •Serve with aardappelpuree, mashed potatoes, rodekool met appel, red cabbage with apple, or buttered winter greens. The glaze likes something plain beside it.
Advance Preparation
- •The glaze can be mixed up to 3 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator; stir before using.
- •The ham can be roasted earlier in the day and served warm or at room temperature, but carve it only after resting and close to serving.
- •Leftover ham keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated. Keep the bone wrapped separately for soup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 340g)
Calories
715 calories
Total Fat
41 g
Saturated Fat
14 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
24 g
Cholesterol
205 mg
Sodium
3900 mg
Total Carbohydrates
21 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
20 g
Protein
66 g
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