Whether you're celebrating Easter with an elegant brunch or hosting a traditional Sunday night dinner, ham is a simple-to-prepare choice that's sure to please everyone.

 

Many hams are sold fully cooked, which means less time in the kitchen and more time with family and friends. For the best flavour and optimum nutrition, choose a butcher who uses traditional methods of curing and smoking the meat. 

Rindless halved hams on the bone make for more manageable -- but still traditional -- Easter hams than huge whole smoked hams with the rind. And they still make enough for a full family table.

Whole bone-in ham baked encased in bread dough is a tradition in Russia, and in Germany and other parts of northern Europe. The dough seals in the juices and adds flavour to the ham, and the bread, although not particularly attractive after it's peeled off the ham, is a tasty treat. 

Just as it does for a traditional pea soup, a ham hock added to a pot of baking beans adds great flavour.

Give a twist to the tried-and-true combo of ham and pineapple with this Thai-inspired version.

Glazed hams make impressive centrepieces for a holiday table and the leftovers can make meal preparation later in the week much easier, too. This particular glaze is flavourful and glossy.

Virginia and its famous dry-cured and lightly smoked Smithfield Country Ham provided the inspiration for this dinner, but you can prepare this recipe with any whole fully cooked ham, cured or smoked. In Canada, smoked ham is generally more available, and it's convenient because you buy it fully cooked. 

Smoked pork shoulder is processed just like ham and can be prepared in similar ways. An inexpensive stand-in for ham, pork shoulder is a more fatty cut, but some people appreciate the extra-juicy, well-marbled meat. Pork shoulders range from about 5 lb/2.2 kg to about 8 lb/3.5 kg.

If you like mixed salads such as Waldorf or Cobb salad, you'll get a kick out of this macaroni salad. If you prefer, you can plate individual servings on lettuce leaves.

In the Swiss canton of Vaud, a "ramekin" is a baked dish of bread and eggs with cream, often with other added ingredients, as in this version with spinach and ham. Serve it as an Easter brunch or lunch main course, or as an appetizer or first course for dinner.

Choose a soft, but not runny, Brie for this simple and -- dare we say? -- sophisticated grilled Brie and ham sandwich with a side of French Bean Salad. The melted cheese will be very runny.

Some prefer a savoury filling in their Danish pastry.

The colours of this dish really say spring! As there are a few parts to be put together, get one of your guests to help you plate, so everything is hot when served.

Add some zing to the traditional array of tea sandwiches with these up-to-date fillings.

A simple French-style ham salad is enriched with barely hard-cooked eggs for this vol-au-vent filling. Of course, if you wish, you can serve this salad on croustades or thin slices of baguette.

You can add a little heat to this attractive salad by replacing half of the sweet pepper with a hot banana pepper, if you like.

A lively filling is tucked into a rich dough for these small empanada-like pies you can eat out of hand.

Easy to make, this colorful one-dish breakfast main course requires no last-minute attention.

This is a traditional and much-loved Chinese soup; it would usually be prepared with rich chicken stock, but turkey is even more flavourful. Winter melon is a huge green squash, similar in appearance to a watermelon but greener. You can buy slices of winter melon at Chinese grocers. Other Chinese green squashes, such as Chinese hairy melon, are also suitable for this soup, as is cucumber. Chinese ham is dry-cured, not smoked, and is sometimes available here, but Serrano ham, prosciutto or Virginia's Smithfield ham are all absolutely fine substitutes. 

Use thick-cut cured ham (such as prosciutto, serrano ham or country ham) or smoked ham (such as Black Forest ham) in this pasta. If you don't have cream, use 3 tbsp/45 mL butter instead.

Blanching softens the slight bitterness of escarole, while braising enhances its attractive buttery flavour, which matches nicely with the salty and smoky flavours of ham. This is a wonderful pasta dish to make with leftover Easter ham.