Delicious Baked Ham Recipe
This simple-to-follow recipe for baked ham gives tasty cuts of ham for breakfast or the Boxing Day buffet. The aromatic smells wafting around the kitchen from cooking this baked ham recipe summons up Christmas all by itself and the taste is divine. It also looks the part with the honey and mustard glaze and the traditional criss-cross pattern scored into the surface.
Our favourite Christmas Ham uses using cloves, honey and mustard and is a real ‘proper job.’ The extra effort involved really pays off as the ham doesn’t just taste great, it also looks great on the Christmas table ‒ and that look simply improves each time it is carved.
THE BOILING
This is an essential first stage for any ham, whether you wish to roast or boil it. I have always regarded it as the real cooking process, as to roast an entire ham could be a risky process, and if it was dressed at the beginning, the dressing would either be burnt or you would have to remove the ham at a late stage of the roasting process, roll back the silver foil and apply the dressing. The ham would then need to heat up again, so you can perhaps see my point about the two separate stages.
INGREDIENTS
3kg (6lb 10oz) unsmoked gammon (preferably with the rind and fat on)
5 bay leaves
A handful of peppercorns
5 star-anise
A cinnamon stick, broken into 2 pieces
4 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp mustard powder
Cloves
METHOD
1 Put the ham in a stockpot and cover it with water. Add the bay leaves, peppercorns, star-anise and cinnamon stick, then boil gently for 1½ hours with the lid on. The aroma will drive a dog wild (I speak from experience here!), so either open a window or remove the dog from the kitchen.
2 Remove from the heat, drain off the water and put the ham on a chopping board with a clean tea towel or similar underneath to soak up the inevitable residue of liquid.
3 Using a sharp knife, remove the rind (you can fry this for pork scratchings)
4 Leave the ham to cool for a few minutes, then score the surface fat, creating a diamond pattern – as the ham roasts this will become a real highlight of the presentation!
5 Meanwhile, mix the runny honey with the mustard powder to form a paste, then select some large cloves (everybody has cloves somewhere in the kitchen).
6 Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas 4) and transfer your ham to a roasting tray, where you can decorate it with the cloves, then cover it generously with the paste. I found it easier to smear the paste on with my fingers rather than flap about with a palette knife or spoon.
7 Roast the ham in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, basting with the paste a couple of times until the glaze is a dark golden colour. Check your ham each time you open the oven door to baste it, and if it looks to be a little too brown, cover with silver foil to slow down the roasting process.
homefarmer.co.uk