salty gammon or ham ?????

Debt_Free_Chick

You have to ask the butcher about the cure of a gammon joint and how long to soak it for. Different cures require different soaking.

I had one at Christmas and it required 24 hours of soaking.

IME if you buy a gammon/ham joint from a Supermarket, the cure is largely "chemical" and a certain amount of saltiness always remains.

kazd

If you cooked a gammon/ham joint, how long would you consider it to be safe to eat from the day of roasting.

Ticklemouse

I have the remains of a ham in my fridge, being eaten up today. Cooked it over a week ago, but has been wrapped and chilled since then. It's fine, but aren't hams cured therefore will keep longer? Isn't that the point of the salt?

Mustang

Was it smoked? I've found that can be salty compared to non-smoked.

Anyhow, I used to boil the ham joints in water, but for the last few years have used the following recipe...

Soak ham for at least 24 hours in water to remove most salt...

Then cook as for normal boiled ham, but replace the water with non-diet coka cola. Yes, sounds disgusting, but it's absolutely brilliant. There is something in the coke which breaks down the cell structure of the ham, resulting in a very tender, beautifully tasting boiled ham. The same chemical is in pineapple juice, and you can likewise cook pork in pineapple juice to make it extremely tender, but I haven't tried this yet.

Anyway, use non-diet coke, do not add sugar (!!). When cooked, remove most of the fat layer, then score remaining fat on joint into small squares. Rub in some molasses, treacle, pepper etc onto the fat, then dot each square with a clove. Cook quickly in a very hot oven to create the 'cracking'. In the meantime, make the sauce. Serve with pureed potatoes and steamed carrots tossed in a light orange butter. And most important, make a 'lake' of sauce in the piled up potato puree on each plate, of course!

Debt_Free_Chick

Then cook as for normal boiled ham, but replace the water with non-diet coka cola.

So ... did Nigella get her idea from you

Mustang

I'm afraid using cola to tenderise pork and other meat has been around far longer than Nigella......

in_my_wellies

I soak and rinse then bring to the boil from cold then change the water again.
I use a pressure cooker, allow 12 mins per lb + an extra 12 mins which saves gas and time.
I was told about the cola recipe years ago but I've never wanted to try it in the pressure cooker!

ET03

i cooked a gammon joint in my new slowcooker and it wasnt salty at all

sarah1

Fantastic gammon joint. I got there at last..... :T
Soaked the gammon joint for 24 hours and kept changing the water now and again.
boiled the joint for about an hour and a half. Changed the water once. Drained the gammon then coated with honey and roasted for half an hour until nice and crispy.
had a good few portions for lunch, everyone loved it.Left the rest to cool.
Sliced the rest up on my bacon slicer. Wraped into portions of around one pound in weight for sandwiches and frozen for later use. Leaving loads out for the week.
It tasted much much beter than the watery stuff from the supermarket and it had no additives aswell
i am truly a happy bunny.
thanks to everyone for all your help.

catznine

My daughter uses the Nigella Lawson recipe for gammon in cola but she puts honey on instead of molasses and it is very very yummy

As has already been mentioned if your stew, casserole etc is too salty pop in some potatoes as they soak up a lot of salt.