How to prepare and cook a delicious Christmas gammon for your festive feast...

I absolutely love cooking a ham.

It’s so easy to do, great to have hot at Christmas served with my dauphinoise and red cabbage, or cold in the fridge ready and waiting for thick doorstep sandwiches or ham and cheese toasties.

AfterChristmas I also create a delicious pie using any leftover turkey. I’ll be posting my recipe for that shortly!

Ingredients:

1 Ham Joint - 3 1/2-4 kg

1 Onion

1 Carrot

2 Sticks Celery

2 tbsp Soft Brown Sugar

8-10 Peppercorns

2 Blades Mace

2 Bay Leaves

Sprigs of thyme

To glaze:

Demerara sugar

Dry mustard

Cloves

Method:

Cover the ham with cold water and soak overnight in a preserving pan.

After soaking, replace liquid with clean and cold water ready to begin cooking. Add to the water your roughly chopped onion, carrot and celery, two bay leaves, some sprigs of thyme, a small handful of black peppercorns, and a pinch of mace. 

If the joint has a bone, pour the soft brown sugar around this.

Place your pan on the top of the aga to bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 mins per kilo plus 20 mins. Aga: cook for 15 minutes on the floor of the roasting oven, and then transfer to the simmering oven for the rest of the cooking time.

Remove for the heat and allow the gammon to cool in the water. Do not pour this away! It is packed full of flavour and incredibly tasty when used with soups and sauces etc.

Once the gammon is cold, remove from the water, remove the skin and mix together 2 tbsp of demerara, to 1 tbsp dry mustard. Cover the fat with the mixture, and press in firmly. I like to score the fat in a criss-cross pattern and finally stud with cloves. 

Place into a roasting tin and add a little of the cooking liquid. Bake for approx 45 mins.-1hour until mustard and sugar have glazed the ham and it is thoroughly heated through. Aga: in the roasting oven or the baking oven for little longer and it will happily stay in the simmering oven until needed once heated through. Electric fan oven 170 degrees (gas mark 6).

Allow to rest for 15-20 minutes before carving or allow to cool completely and serve cold with chutney and salads. Goes fantastically with plum sauce, cranberry sauce or a Cumberland sauce.

Now tuck in! And don't forget to keep all of that leftover turkey, my pie recipe is on the way!

Love,