Although it was traditional to have turkey for Christmas dinner, it was not unheard of to have ham. Quite frankly, I’m tired of turkey and in hunting through my vintage cook books I found a neat recipe for Baked Ham with Brandy Sauce that sounded so good. The recipe appeared to have been torn from a magazine or small pamphlet and the title of the page said: 
Favorite Recipes of Famous Taverns. This recipe came from The Green Hut in Washington State.
With further thought I wondered if this wasn’t from the Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Eating Places. Indeed, I found the identical recipe in my 1950 version of this great little cook book. I love this book. It fills all my desires for vintage recipes, along with cool descriptions and illustrations of inns, motels, and restaurants of the 40s/50s. My 1950 edition has great illustrations, while the torn out recipe actually had a photo of The Green Hut with the mighty Grand Coulee Dam behind it gushing water.
The description reads that The Green Hut was “a stone’s throw from the mighty Grand Coulee Dam.” It went on to say it serves some 500,000 tourists yearly and that it was 94 miles to the north and west of Spokane on state Highway Two. My cook book adds that there was a gift shop and that the restaurant was open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until 11:00 p.m. Swank!
The Green Hut Cafe was built in 1938 during the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam. The cafe featured a very large 21-stool lunch counter, along with tables and booths for dining.
Sadly The Green Hut burned in 1964, but I found some great postcards and even a photo of the menu. Look carefully and you will see that Baked Ham with Brandy Sauce was on the menu. Cost – a mere $1.50.
Here’s the ham recipe:
- 12-14 pound ham, bone in
- Cloves (whole)
- Brown Sugar
- Honey
- 1 pint of apple juice or cider
The recipe talks about soaking the ham overnight and then boiling it for 2 1/2 hours. But we don’t need to do that anymore with our hams as they are already cooked when we purchase them. I’m not sure when this huge change in hams took place.
Christmas dinner – ham, mashed potatoes, and Harvard beets
They suggest removing some of the rind and fat. I wish I’d done this so I suggest you do.
Make a series of cuts in the ham and stud the ham with whole cloves
Put the ham in a roaster and smear the ham with brown sugar and then honey (I drizzled honey on it)
Add apple juice or cider to the bottom of the roasting pan.
Then it just says glaze in a hot oven, basting frequently. I followed the ham package directions for temperature of oven and length of cooking.
Brandy Sauce
- 1 pint apple cider or juice
- 1/2 pound brown sugar
- 3 cloves (whole)
- Juice of 1 orange
Bring all of this to a boil and keep warm to serve with the ham. Before serving add 1 ounce of brandy.
This was my first attempt at ham and I was quite pleased with the result. With the Brandy Sauce, the ham had a very nice flavor that seemed elegant and suited for Christmas. It was easy to make and I would highly recommend this recipe.
I’d love to hear from you about what you traditionally had for Christmas dinner, especially if it varied from turkey. We were turkey eaters at my house growing up except for the one year my mom was adventurous. We had lobster! Swank!
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