Country Ham Braised in Cider and Molasses

Wilkes County, located high in the mountains of North Carolina, produces some of the greatest country hams in the entire South, and without question the best in the county hang in Clayton Long’s ham house at Glendale Springs, about ten miles from West Jefferson. Like his daddy (“Mr. G”) before him, Clayton is a maverick who would no more compromise the quality of his exquisite hams to streamline and increase production than he’d neglect the acres of Christmas trees he grows