Roast Ham




OK OK so this all sounds simple yeah, ham is ham right? 
Most people, veggies excluded love a slice or two of ham. You know the stuff, the succulent slices lying sultrily at the deli tempting you to part with your hard earned or perhaps some of the supermarkets finest pre-packed for your convenience. I’m not talking the reformed crap that you can get for £1 I’m think about the quality stuff that costs about £2-£3 for a couple of slices.

What really amazes me is how people will readily purchase the sliced stuff when cooking your own joint is not only simple but so much cheaper



This recipe starts of with a simple boiling process, with a few additions for flavour. Now you could eat it at this point and boiled ham is great in its own right but roasting, ahhh roasting, with the glaze gives that lovely sticky coating and renders the fat down a little further, plus you can make an amazing sauce with the juices




Interested, the please read on you don’t know what your missing





Ingredients
Gammon joint - smoked or unsmoked its up to you
1 Onion peeled and halved
2 Carrots chopped into chunks
1 Stick of Celery chopped into chunks
Couple of sprigs of Thyme
Cloves
Small bottle of quality dry cider about £1.50 per bottle
1 apple halved
Honey
Good Dijon mustard
Pepper corns
Water
Oh you might want to get some string, I'll explain later ...

Boil the ham
Remove the plastic from the gammon but not the plastic ring that holds the meat together
Put the gammon in the pan together with the Celery, carrots , apple, thyme, onion, a few pepper corns and about 5 cloves
Fill with water enough so the ham is covered
Bring the water to the boil and simmer for about 90mins to two hours

Turn off the heat and leave in the pan for about 30 mins



Glaze
Heat the oven to about 160 degrees
In a small pan put half a bottle of cider a good dollop of honey and a couple of teaspoons of mustard
Bring to the boil and let it reduce (keep boiling until most of the liquid has gone), by now you should have something that resembles a syrup, you'll need to stir every now and then, if the cider starts fizzing up to much turn the heat down a bit.
If it becomes so sticky that you cant get your spoon out, just add a little water



Glazing and roasting
Remove the gammon from the pan and take off plastic sleeve, if it starts to come apart you will need to tie it up with string if you're not sure this link might help


Remove all but 5mm of the fat and then, with a sharp knife, do diagonal scores across the fat so you get a diamond pattern
Stud the fat randomly with cloves
Put the gammon in a small roasting tin
And cover with some of the glaze
Put the ham in the oven for about an hour
Every 15 mins add more of the glaze until there is None left, if the bottom of the roasting tin has become dry add a little of the water so it loosens the bits at bottom.
Once the glaze has gone you should have enough liquid in the bottom of the roasting tin(by adding water every 15 mins if you need to) so that you can use a spoon to baste the gammon.
Remove from the oven and let it rest for 20-30 mins.



You can also deglaze the bottom of the pan with some Water/Cider/Wine and then add cream to make a sauce if serving hot

Comments

  1. Looks delicious. The problem is getting through it when there are not many of you in the house!

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  2. I know what you mean about ham, it's delicious and expensive for what you get but you just can't say no! I've thought about making it myself but need to find a small enough joint.

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  3. There are a few recipes that used up what you dont want in slices, the pork one before this for instance and there's always pie, plus it goes well with Porcini Mushrooms, cream and Pene

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  4. Looks fantastic. Another great blog!

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