a few questions about cooking gammon, if you could help?

carlamarie_2

im planning on cooking gammon in cola for xmas eve.

dh has bought the gammon and it comes in a net. last time we removed this before cooking it swelled right up! and when ive kept it on and removed when cooked its took the top layer off with it.

so i was thinking of removing the net prior to cooking and replcing it with string?
would that keep the gammon in place?
do i need a specialised string (ie waxed, etc) or will any old string work?

and finaly i am planning to roast the gammon and baste occasionally with the cola, do i need to remove the fat first? or leave it on? any recipes ive come across on line doesnt tell me!

ive cooked gammon laods of times, but never tried to do anything different with it, so im a bit flummoxed!!!

thank you to all that reply

Penelope_Penguin

carlamarie wrote: »

im planning on cooking gammon in cola for xmas eve.

dh has bought the gammon and it comes in a net. last time we removed this before cooking it swelled right up! and when ive kept it on and removed when cooked its took the top layer off with it.

so i was thinking of removing the net prior to cooking and replcing it with string?
would that keep the gammon in place?
do i need a specialised string (ie waxed, etc) or will any old string work?

and finaly i am planning to roast the gammon and baste occasionally with the cola, do i need to remove the fat first? or leave it on? any recipes ive come across on line doesnt tell me!

ive cooked gammon laods of times, but never tried to do anything different with it, so im a bit flummoxed!!!

thank you to all that reply

Why do you want to take the net off? I'd leave it on, along with all the fat, and remove the lot when you serve.

My one piece of advice - ditch the cola and replace with apple juice. You get a beautiful stock to make bacon and lentil soup, and none of the phosphoric acid, flavours and colours that you get in coke

carlamarie_2

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Why do you want to take the net off? I'd leave it on, along with all the fat, and remove the lot when you serve.

My one piece of advice - ditch the cola and replace with apple juice. You get a beautiful stock to make bacon and lentil soup, and none of the phosphoric acid, flavours and colours that you get in coke

im under the impression that the cola will leave a thick syrupy coating on the gammon (which is what dh is really looking forwrd to), and im concerned that the net will strip it all off, if i cook it with it on.

ive never heard of doing it with apple juice, i do eat a lot of gammon (i love it!) so maybe this will be my next venture!

RED_LYON_LADY

I have just cooked my Gammon today in my slow cooker and I left the net on, which I haven't done before, and it was so much better. I have taken the net off tonight because I am going to glaze it and it was a much better shape. I put a couple of star anise in the stock and it gave a lovely flavour. I cooked the gammon in coke last year and I didn't fancy the look of the stock after for making soup, although I think Nigella suggests making a black bean soup. To be honest I don't think the coke made that much of an improvement to the flavour.

carlamarie_2

RED_LYON_LADY wrote: »

I have just cooked my Gammon today in my slow cooker and I left the net on, which I haven't done before, and it was so much better. I have taken the net off tonight because I am going to glaze it and it was a much better shape. I put a couple of star anise in the stock and it gave a lovely flavour. I cooked the gammon in coke last year and I didn't fancy the look of the stock after for making soup, although I think Nigella suggests making a black bean soup. To be honest I don't think the coke made that much of an improvement to the flavour.

how exactly did you cook the gammon in coke? did you add any other ingrediants? or just the coke? and was your gammon secured by string?

Benson

Can I ask how long did you cook it in the slow cooker for and did you cover completly in water or just put some in the bottom?
I cooked some in the pan last night as per the instructions covered in water for an hour and it was still raw, in the end I chopped it up and boiled it that way!

Penelope_Penguin

carlamarie wrote: »

how exactly did you cook the gammon in coke? did you add any other ingrediants? or just the coke? and was your gammon secured by string?

If you're insisting on using coke there's a whole thread here for you to read

I'll merge this later to keep ideas together.

McKneff

Ive only ever cooked gammon in the slow cooker once and it ended up all stringy,
i prefer it roasted now. But i will try the apple juice idea, sounds scrummy

carlamarie_2

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

If you're insisting on using coke there's a whole thread here for you to read

I'll merge this later to keep ideas together.

lol its dh thats insistent! hes always coming up with these ideas and then leaving me to find out how to cook them! im cutting the gammon in half and mine will be roasted normally!
i shall read through the thread, thank you

newleaf

I cooked Nigella's Gammon in Coke for visitors a couple of christmasses ago, and I was amazed to discover it was fabulous! Everyone raved about it, even the fussy teens.
You boil the Gammon, with an onion, in 2 litres of coke, remove the skin, score the fat into diamonds which you stud with cloves, and make a glaze from brown sugar, black treacle & mustard, which you finish off in the oven. Dead easy!

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/ham-in-coca-cola-171

Heheh! Feel like I should be on commission for Nigella tonight. (Other celebrity cooks are available!).

rachbc

I have made nigellas ham in coke and ham in apple juice and the coke knocks spots of the other for flavour - once a year I figure a bit of coke won't hurt!

My gammon doesn't have net so no idea on that though...I cook in the coke, peel off the skin leaving the fat then glaze with some of the coke and mustard and keep basting with this. Yum