Name: Sour Braised Ham with Black Vinegar Sauce (Schunkebrode mit Schwatze Essich Sosse)
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon fennel seed; 6 fresh bay leaves; 1½ cups (375 ml) Black Vinegar Sauce; 4 medium onions (14 ounces/400 g), cut in quarters; 1 country smoked ham (5½ to 6 pounds/2.75 to 3 kg)

Preparation info

8 to 10
servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking

By William Woys Weaver

Published 1993

About

Black Vinegar Sauce was often used like barbecue sauce, brushed over grilled fish or dabbed on spit-roasted fowl such as goose or duck. It was also brushed over the exterior of sausages and hams as they were smoked. Here it is used to impart flavor to steam-baked ham in the style of the old sour pot roasts.

Ingredients

1 country smoked ham (5½ to 6 pounds/2.75 to 3 kg)
4 medium onions

Method

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Put a rack in the bottom of a Dutch oven and set the ham on it. Place the quartered onions around the ham and pour the vinegar sauce over it. Pour ½ cup (125 ml) of water over the onions, then tuck the bay leaves down among the onions. Scatter the fen