If you’re a bit fed up of turkey, or you’re saving your helping of it for Christmas Day, then why not try something a little different with this glazed ham recipe using a whole host of festive flavours?
Much of the food we eat during the festive season is meat of some kind, be it turkey with our Christmas dinner, stovies on Hogmanay or steak pie on New Year’s Day.
But if you want something a bit different to turkey, goose, chicken, or whatever you usually eat at this time of year, why not give this honey roast ham a go?
For more recipe inspiration, especially for midweek meal ideas, take a look at our previous recipes here.
Honey ham with cider
(Serves 8)
Ingredients
For the ham:
- 1.5kg smoked gammon joint, soaked overnight in cold water and then drained
- 1 carrot, quartered
- 1 onion, quartered
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ tsp peppercorns
- 500ml bottle dry cider
- 450-600ml boiling water
To glaze:
- A few whole cloves
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
For the pickled plums:
- 400ml white wine vinegar
- 150g honey
- 75g caster sugar
- 3 garlic cloves, halved
- 1 red chilli, halved with seeds, optional
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp multi-coloured peppercorns
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- 4 bay leaves
- 450g firm ripe red plums
Method
- For the ham: Put the gammon joint into a flameproof casserole dish a little larger than the joint, add the carrot, onion, bay leaves and peppercorns, the cider and enough water to just cover the joint.
- Bring to the boil then add the lid and transfer to a preheated oven set to 190C/Fan 170C/375F/Gas Mark 5 and cook for 35 minutes per 500g. Lift the joint out of the pan and transfer to a small roasting tin, allow to cool for a few minutes then cut away the rind. Score the fat underneath in crisscross lines with a knife then insert a few cloves into the squares of fat.
- Mix the honey, mustard and ground cloves then spread this over the fat. Add two ladlefuls of the cooking liquid to the base of the roasting tin then return the joint to the oven, uncovered for 30-35 minutes, basting once or twice with the cooking juices until a deep brown.
- If serving hot, transfer the joint to a serving plate, carve into slices and serve with spoonfuls of the honeyed cider pan juices. If serving cold, leave the ham to cool and serve sliced with salad and pickled plums, see below.
- For the pickled plums: Pour the vinegar into a saucepan, add the honey, sugar, garlic, chilli, salt, peppercorns and half the herbs and bring to the boil. Simmer for five minutes until syrupy.
- Meanwhile, wash, dry and prick the plums with a fork then pack into a warmed dry 750ml/1¼ pint jar with the remaining herbs, pressing the plums together tightly.
- Lift the cooked herbs from the vinegar with a fork and discard then pour the hot vinegar mixture quickly over the plums making sure the fruit are covered by the vinegar. Close and seal the lid.
- Leave to cool then store in the fridge, ideally for two weeks so the flavours can develop before eating with cold sliced ham.
Recipe courtesy of Rowse Honey.
More in this series…