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

RED_LYON_LADY · 20 December 2010 at 8:48PM

Hi
When I cooked it last year with the coke, I still put some onion carrot and celery.

This year I cooked it in the slow cooker on low for 7 hours, starting off for 30mins on high, then reducing to low for the remainder. it hardly shrank at all.

I put carrot
onion with cloves in it
2 star anise
celery
and some thyme
Covered in boiling water
We had some tonight and it was great with a very good flavour. My husband said 'This is lovely where did you buy it' Typical!!

Paulie'sGirl · 20 December 2010 at 10:58PM

Hi,

I do mine in coke all the time. It does not result in a syrupy glaze, you have to add that after the simmering.

Basically, leave the net on. Put the joint in a pan only just large enough for it (means you need less coke), cover with full fat coke and add a halved white onion. Simmer until cooked (work this out from the weight of the joint)

Allow to cool in the coke, then drain, pat dry with kitchen roll and remove the net and the skin. Leave a thin layer of the fat covering the surface. Score in a diamond pattern. You can stud with cloves at this point, but my OH doesn't like them so I tend not to. I then put my joint in a foil lined roasting tin and cover with dark brown sugar before roasting at 220 until the sugar has formed a sticky glaze.

Now, I can't see why you couldn't boil down cola in a pan until it made a sticky syrup, but that's not a part of any of the recipes I've seen for ham in coke, and I suspect it would take rather a long time.

If you want any more advice do PM me.

PGxx

Fruball · 20 December 2010 at 11:01PM

I've done the COKE thing and to be honest... its not all that great.... I've cooked just as good gammon in water alone.

stiltwalker · 20 December 2010 at 11:20PM

Never done the coke thing, I always cook my gammon by boiling it with the net on til done in water with an onion a lemon, an orange a few peppercorns, a few cloves and a bay leaf then take net off and cut away the skin (but leave most of the fat as we love that but you can take that off too if you're not keen) smear all over with dijon mustard and sprinkle a good amount of demerara sugar on top so it sticks then it goes into the oven until the sugar has turned into a crust - yummy. You can get a more syrupy glaze by mixing your mustard with honey and leaving off the sugar.