THE CHRISTMAS HAM

WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS HAM

Among all my loves at Christmas, cooking the ham is the start to all my traditional cooking rituals and the exciting anticipation from cooking new recipes that I will be trying over the two week christmas period.  I have a lot of old fashioned traditional recipes handed down through my family that I will never change and then there are the new trends and fads that sneak their way in for an attempt to be added to the annual must cook list !

INGREDIENTS

5kg leg of pork brined

AROMATIC FLAVOURS

10 whole peppercorns

5 juniper berries

5 crushed cardamom pods 

1 star anise

1 carrot

1 onion halved

1 leek rough chopped

2 sticks of celery

5ltrs cider

THE GLAZE

100g soft dark brown sugar

2 tbsp mustard

2 tbsp marmalade

20 whole cloves

This is a lovely calm simple start to the Christmas cooking frenzy (in my house, too many cooks)!!! I make sure when it comes to cooking my ham it is on a day I am home, this gives me a stress free no timeline.  Nowadays I do not feel the need to soak my brined ham as I have found that there is much less salt used in the brines to date.  

(Update I have had a couple of hams that were salty, so I am now going back to soaking my ham for 24hrs in the fridge, changing the water three or four times)

Fill a deep pan with the cider and bring to a simmer with all the aromatic flavours thrown In, add the ham, top up with water if the ham is not covered, simmer for approx 4-5hrs, if your using a probe your ham is ready when you reach 75 degrees in the deepest centre part.  I like to leave the ham now to cool down in the stock liquor, this makes a huge difference to the moistness and overall flavour of your ham, as your ham cools it soaks back some of the stock.  Leave for a couple of hours if you can.

Pre heat your oven to 170 degrees, take your ham and gently remove the skin keeping the fat intact on the ham.  Gently score the fat, not to deep so that you can see the meat.  Now take your glaze ingredients and mix well together, paste over the scored ham and with the cloves gently push the studs randomly into some of the criss cross sections of the fat.

Place in your roasting tin with another litre of cider or water creating a water bath to help retain moisture and cover well with foil, cook at 170 degrees for 25 minutes, remove the foil and brown off the caramelised crust for a further 20mins, then bring out, cover and leave resting for at least one hour if you can!  In my home I. Have to fight my family off from attacking the ham at this point!