Gammon stock

Stephen_Leak

The trick is to rinse off as much surface salt as possible first and then to keep changing the old, salty water for fresh stuff. You need to keep the "osmotic gradient" between the meat and the water as "steep" as possible to get as much of the remaining "internal" salt out as possible.

Next time, try this ...

BOILED HAM plus PEA & HAM SOUP

If you are going to boil a ham joint, make some pea & ham soup at the same time.

For 4 servings of soup

INGREDIENTS

1 ham joint
500g of peas
1 litre of water
Ground black pepper to taste

METHOD

Rinse the ham in cold water, then soak the ham in cold water for at least 6 hours, changing the water once or twice if it is very salty, or according to any cooking instructions. If you are using dried peas, soak them in water according to the instructions on the box.

Put the ham and water into a large saucepan on a medium heat. If you are using dried peas, add them now. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering).

Put the lid on the saucepan and cook according to the cooking instructions on the ham. Check the liquid level from time to time and top up if it starts to dry out. Remove any white salt scum, which will probably form on the surface of the water.

Remove the ham. Adjust the amount of water back to 1 litre.

If you are using tinned peas, open the tins, drain off the water and add them now. If you are using fresh or frozen peas, add them now.

Continue cooking until the peas are soft. Check the liquid level from time to time and top up if it starts to dry out.

If you have a food processor, put the soup in it and blend it to the desired consistency. If you have a hand blender, put it in the soup and blend it to the desired consistency. If you don’t have a food processor or hand blender, use a potato masher, press the soup through a sieve with the back of a spoon, or leave it lumpy. If you used a food processor, rinse out the saucepan and put the soup back into the saucepan.

Put the saucepan on a low heat and reheat the soup gently.

Season with the pepper.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

You can use dried, fresh, frozen or tinned peas, either on their own or in any combination. Dried peas need to be soaked in advance. Tinned peas come in water and the drained weight of a 300g tin of peas is 185g, so you will need three tins.

Add some of the cooked ham to the soup before blending.

Shred some the cooked ham and sprinkle it onto the soup before serving.

TIPS

Pea & ham soup can be any consistency from a thin liquid with soft peas floating in it to a thick paste you can stand a spoon up in.

emcwill

I've read this thread and still cant find an answer to what exactly one does with the leftover coke after slow cooking the gammon in it to turn it into black bean soup (which we have from yesterday). I hate to sound useless but can someone give me the recipe? I poured over the whole 2l as instructed even though this seemed way too much. It doesn't look like it's reduced at all and I wouldn't fancy a soup that just tasted of coke (yuk!) so I'd be hugely grateful for a recipe with quantities!

Thanks so much for any help!

Primrose

Not sure I can help you as although I've heard of of cooking gammon in Coca Cola I've never fancied trying it. . We boil ours in water to which we've added some chopped vegetables such as onion, carrot, celery to add extra flavouring. If the gammon joint had any bones in it, these will have released their gelatine into the cooking liquid and when cold, it should have set to a light jelly, which is good as it increases the smoothness of the stock for subsequent use. Now your cooking liquid has cooled, has it set into a jelly?

Taste it and see whether you like it. If you don't like the flavour, there's little point in keeping it for soup. At this point I would then add whatever chopped vegetables I wanted for make the soup but if there's too much liquid it may be rather thin and need to be reduced down a little. With ham stock I often use lots of lentils as well as other vegetables. (No specific quantities. I do it by eye but put it enough to make a thick consistency when it's whizzed down with a stick blender). sorry, that isn't much help, is it?

bullinn1

This is an old thread but maybe still live ... I tried cooking in cola and it was very good but I missed not having the stock to use for soup. So does anyone know why the coke works so well, does it just add an interesting flavour or does it 'tenderise' ... obviously the used coke juice cannot be used for soup !

katkin

rogertb wrote: »

This is an old thread but maybe still live ... I tried cooking in cola and it was very good but I missed not having the stock to use for soup. So does anyone know why the coke works so well, does it just add an interesting flavour or does it 'tenderise' ... obviously the used coke juice cannot be used for soup !

Could you reduce the ham / coke stock to make it syrupy / thicker and use it to do sticky chicken wings or drumsticks in the oven? Maybe add something spicy too like jerk mix?

I do my ham / gammon old school style lol so I can make lentil or pea and ham soup To intense the flavour I usually pop in a ham stock cube too.

maman

rogertb wrote: »

This is an old thread but maybe still live ... I tried cooking in cola and it was very good but I missed not having the stock to use for soup. So does anyone know why the coke works so well, does it just add an interesting flavour or does it 'tenderise' ... obviously the used coke juice cannot be used for soup !

As far as I know it just gives the barbecue type flavour.


But I'm with katkin, I do the traditional method (carrot, onion, bay leaf and a few peppercorns) and make the most delightful lentil and veg soup with the stock. I'm already planning how to store the stock from Christmas gammon as I won't have time to make soup this week.

suki1964

I love to cook my gammon the old fashioned way I love the soup made from the stock