Skinke i Vin

Description
Serves 10

Ingredients

 * 10 pounds ham -- smoked
 * 2 small onions -- chopped
 * 1 leek -- finely chopped
 * 1 5/8 quarts red wine
 * ½ pound mushrooms -- sliced
 * 2 tablespoons butter
 * ½ cup water
 * Salt
 * Pepper
 * 2 tablespoons butter
 * 2 tablespoons flour

Directions
Loosen the skin from the ham and simmer with the onions and the leek for 1 hour in a roasting pan with all but ½ cup of the wine.

Remove ham from roaster. Cut away and discard tough outer skin.

Brown mushrooms in butter. Cut a slash in the top of the ham sufficiently large to hold the mushroom mixture, water, salt and pepper. Skewer the opening to keep the filling in place.

Make a sauce of the 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoon of flour and the liquid from the roaster. Stir over a low heat. Add the reserved ½ cup wine a little at a time and mix well. Pout over the ham in the roasting pan and bake until tender (about 25 minutes to the pound) in a preheated 375º oven. Baste at least every ½ hour with juices from the pan.

NOTES : There are hams and hams. This recipe is intended not for the canned or cellophane-wrapped hams available at your supermarket but for the so-called "country" or Smithfield ham which requires precooking preparation. A gourmet feast will repay you for the loving care these hams call for.