- Aretha Franklin used Vernors ginger ale to make her ham glaze uniquely Detroit.
- She basted the ham every 20 minutes and finished it with cherries and coconut.
- Her ham recipe was a cherished tradition tied to her church and family roots.
Some culinary R-E-S-P-E-C-T is in order for the Queen of Soul. It turns out Aretha Franklin’s hidden talents weren’t limited to taking to the stage and belting out “Nessun Dorma” like Pavarotti. She may have passed away in 2018, but her favorite holiday recipe lives on, and it’s a one-ingredient upgrade that we can’t wait to try.
In 1999, Franklin appeared on Martha Stewart Living and shared how she made a Thanksgiving ham. (You can view it as posted by @blackdetroiters on Instagram.) The same footage, also posted by @ilovethrowbackz, appears with the caption “That Time Aretha Franklin Taught Martha Stewart How to Cook”—and that’s precisely what takes place.
“My mother always used brown sugar and pineapple, but she didn’t use one ingredient you’re going to use,” Stewart says by way of introduction. Meanwhile, Franklin pours an entire box of brown sugar into a large bowl. She also adds French’s yellow mustard, but that isn’t her secret ingredient.
“If you don’t have enough mustard, you can put in just a little bit of ginger ale,” explains Franklin. “This is Vernors, exclusively from Detroit… It makes it very Michigan and very Detroit.”
Franklin mixes her glaze as she explains her glaze method and takes out the first ham from the oven. She tells Stewart that she glazes her ham every 20 minutes.
“Oh my gosh, it looks so beautiful, Aretha,” Stewart says. “The glaze is gorgeous! That’s a beautiful, beautiful glaze.”
As Stewart explains where she got the visually appealing hams (from the now-closed Kurowycky Meat Products in New York City), Franklin lets her know that the recipe she’s sharing is the traditional Franklin family ham. “We have it annually. It’s called Miss Franklin’s Annual and Any-Old-Time Baked Ham,” she says.
In 2012, Franklin again appeared on morning TV to make ham, this time on LIVE with Kelly and Michael. Her Christmas Eve appearance still included Vernors, but in the clip, Franklin instead calls her recipe “ReRe’s Christmas New Bethel Ham,” after the Detroit church where her father served as pastor for almost 40 years.
“This is the way the ladies at the church do it,” Franklin says. In the longer video, the singer begins by scoring the ham. She allows co-host Michael Strahan to place cloves in the crevices of the meat (as she serenades Strahan and Kelly Ripa).
The hosts and Franklin make the glaze slightly differently from the Martha recipe. This time, she mixes 5 cups of brown sugar and 5 tablespoons of yellow mustard with 1 cup ginger ale and ⅓ cup of pineapple juice. When Franklin deems the mixture “soupy,” she asks Ripa to add more brown sugar. Once it’s thickened, Strahan pours it over the ham.
Franklin then reveals that they missed the step of sweating the ham, which involves covering the beast in foil and roasting it at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. “It will be a lot juicier,” she reveals.
Once again, she says to lightly baste the ham every 20 minutes. It’s done when it’s slightly “singed,” she says. She finishes the dish with pineapples and maraschino cherries stuck on with toothpicks, plus a shower of shredded coconut.
When it’s finished, Franklin requests a ham sandwich, and we are right there with her. If you’re opting for a ham this holiday season, consider adding a splash of Vernors to your glaze—or just borrowing the Queen of Soul’s recipe entirely. We can’t wait to carve one of these hams up and serve it with delicious winter sides like our French Onion Melting Potatoes and Garlic-Butter Roasted Beets.
