The Christmas Ham
Preheat the oven to 160C
I always used to boil our ham, which is really tricky when it is the size of a small child, and it is hard to get the timing right as it takes so long to come back to the boil. This year, Michelle said to look in Delia, and of course, Delia knows best – bake it. So this is thanks to her and thanks to the organic farmer who grew it and thanks to Dorset Farms for curing and smoking it to perfection.
Soak the ham about an hour if you trust your butcher not to have made it really salty (I did), if in doubt, soak over night.
Wrap well in 2 sheets of foil, one one way, one the other way, loose enough to make a pocket above the meat – “an oven within an oven”.
Make sure the oven is well heated, bake for 20 mins/454g/1lb - which for our 6.7kg “baby” was 5 hours. Half an hour before the end of the cooking time, take the ham out of the oven. Turn it up to 200C. Remove the foil, cut off the net, carefully peel off the skin by cutting across the skin and using a tea towel to hold the corner, peel it off but keep as much fat on as possible. Cut diagonal diamonds across the fat and plant a clove into each diamond. Then mix: 3 heaped tablespoons of Colman’s hot English mustard and smear over the ham. Add 3 or 4 handfuls of Demerara sugar over the mustard and press it onto the wonderful mustardy “glue”.
Bake for up to half an hour, watch it carefully, don’t burn it! It should be pale golden with a few caramelised spots.
The juice from the pan (pints of it) makes amazing soup. Put it in the fridge to settle the fat for skimming. The stock can also be added to the parsley sauce to give it extra dimensions, and the glazing pan can be de-glazed with white wine (flat cava), and added to the parsley sauce too.
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