First: My parents have added commentary to the
taco post.
My family did not keep kosher when I was growing up. Since my father's family also had not kept kosher when he was growing up, this isn't greatly surprising, but even if we had been so inclined there were so few Jews in North Dakota that any kosher meat had to come from the Twin Cities five hours away at great expense. Perhaps as a result, there were few people who kept kosher in our congregation. Others had a "kosher at home" and "not kosher when not at home" policy because otherwise they only would have been able to eat at home. Even the synagogue, which officially had a kosher kitchen, was known to overlook it on the rare occasion when someone brought a meat dish by accident.
Since we weren't keeping kosher at home, pork was regularly on the menu. We had bacon and sausage for breakfast, and roasted pork chops turned up on the dinner menu with some frequency. Ham, however, only appeared in one format, which was this recipe.
Ham in Orange-Mustard Sauce
1 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 thinly sliced fully cooked ham OR 8 oz package of ham slices
2/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
4 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1. In large skillet, melt butter/margarine and add ham and stir fry for 1 minute or so.
2. Add orange juice concentrate, sugar and mustard to skillet and stir.
3. Spoon sauce until heated and slightly thickened.
The recipe recommends serving it with rice.
I have no idea where my mother found this recipe, and although it's in my cookbook I've never made it nor have I made ham in any other form. To be perfectly honest, the idea that people get excited for honey baked hams for holiday dinners still baffles me, and I say that having partaken of several of them, mostly prepared by people who were quite good at cooking. My job even had a perk for a few years where you could get a deeply discounted honey baked ham delivered to the office the week before Christmas. Needless to say, I've not taken advantage of that offer. It's a moot point now that I've given up red meat, but give me a brisket or lamb for a holiday (or even for non-holiday) any time.
One interesting part of this recipe is the frozen orange juice concentrate. My mom only bought juice in frozen concentrate format, probably because it was cheaper than cartons of juice. Since I drank a lot of it in the summer the price difference added up pretty quickly. It was routine for there to be a thawing orange juice concentrate in the fridge at any given moment. We'd also freeze juice for "juice pops" to make cheaper popsicles, but a tray of those wouldn't last more than a day at best.
We also always had several jars of water in the fridge at all times. As an adult, that's more my speed. I buy juice for M or occasionally for a specific recipe, but that's about it. I'm not sure I've bought frozen juice concentrate even once.