Glazed ham
A good ham sandwich, made with homemade roasted ham, is one of the finest things in life. At home, my preferred glaze is marmalade, but you may prefer to use the Ginger Pig glaze. A gammon is an uncooked ham, so if you are starting with a cooked ham, skip ahead to step 5. A 1kg ham will serve 5-6 as a main course, or more as cold cuts; a 2kg ham will serve 6-8 as a main.
GET AHEAD A glazed ham will keep for 5-7 days in the fridge, so you can safely cook it a couple of days before Christmas if you plan to serve it on Boxing Day.
This recipe is from the ‘Ginger Pig Christmas Cook Book’, by Tim Wilson and Rebecca Seal.
Ingredients
Ingredients
For the Ginger Pig Glaze
For the Marmalade Glaze
Preparation
Step 1
Soak the gammon in cold water for 1-11⁄2 hours. This will get rid of any excess salt from the curing process. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/mark 4.
Step 2
Pour 3cm boiling water into a roasting tin. Place the gammon on a rack in the tin, making sure the water doesn’t touch the meat. (If you don’t have a rack, use twists of foil to make a trivet.) Loosely cover the gammon with foil, but ensure the foil is airtight – you may need to use a couple of pieces, crossways to each other.
Step 3
Bake for 55 minutes per 1kg, loosening the foil for the last 20-30 minutes of cooking. Remove from the oven.
Step 4
When cool enough to handle, remove the skin (but be careful not to remove the fat as well). Your gammon is now officially a ham. Turn the oven up to 220°C/fan oven 200°C/mark 7.
Step 5
Use a sharp knife to score a criss-cross pattern in the fat, cutting diamonds about 3cm wide. Decide which glaze you would like. Whisk together the glaze ingredients, then spoon over the ham, spreading it all over the fat. Stud each diamond with a clove. Grease a clean tin and put the ham into it, then pop into the hot oven.
Step 6
Bake the ham for 20-30 minutes, keeping a close eye at the end of cooking, as the glaze may catch and burn. If the glaze at the top of the ham caramelises faster, place a square of foil over it to protect it, while the rest catches up. (If the ham is on the large side, weighing more than 2.5kg, you may wish to check it has by now reached an internal temperature of 68°C using a meat thermometer.) Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. You can eat it hot or warm but, at Christmas, we love it cooled and sliced.
