Cooking gammon / ham for Christmas?

[Bob Buzzard]

For Christmas we are going to Herefordshire and we've been asked to bring a ham with us. My wife is vegan and I'm vegetarian. Advice from meat people please: If we bought a free range gammon joint and cooked it would then be ham? Asking because not sure you can buy a free range joint of ham in supermarkets? Sensible answers only please. Thank you.

[jazzer]

From a James Martin recipe

Ingredients

For the gammon

2.5kg/5lb 8oz gammon

1 lemon, halved

1 orange, halved

1 apple, halved

1 cinnamon stick

1 onion, halved

2 dried chillies

5 star anise

375g/13oz marmalade

200g/7oz honey

2 heaped tsp English mustard

1 tsp cloves

1kg/2lb 4oz new potatoes

50g/1?oz butter

For the parsley sauce

400ml/14fl oz milk

1 onion, halved, each half studded with 2 cloves and 1 bay leaf

50g/1?oz butter

25g/1oz plain flour

50ml/2fl oz double cream

squeeze lemon juice

small bunch fresh flatleaf parsley, finely chopped

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Recipe tips

Method

Place the gammon into a large, heavy-based, lidded saucepan with the lemon, orange, apple, cinnamon stick, onion, chillies and 2 of the star anise. Pour in enough water to cover the gammon.

Cover the pan with the lid, place onto the heat, bring the water to the boil, then turn the heat down until simmering. Simmer for 2 hours, or until the meat is tender, then set aside to cool in the cooking liquid.

Preheat the oven to 230C/210C Fan/Gas 7.

In a small pan, heat the marmalade, honey, mustard, the remaining 3 star anise and the cloves in a small pan until the preserves have melted, then stir and set aside.

Lift the cooled ham from the cooking liquid and transfer to a roasting tin. Carve the layer of fat on top of the ham in a criss-cross pattern, then spread the marmalade glaze over the top. Return to the oven for a further 20 minutes, basting with the glaze every 5-8 minutes, until the surface of the gammon is golden-brown and just starting to blacken at the edge.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in a saucepan of salted water for 10-15 minutes, or until just tender, then drain and return to the pan. Stir in the butter to coat, then season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Keep warm.

For the parsley sauce, pour the milk into a saucepan and add the clove-studded onion halves. Heat until just simmering, then turn off the heat and leave to infuse for a few minutes.

In a separate saucepan, heat the butter until melted, then whisk in the flour until well combined and cook for 30 seconds. Whisk in the infused milk a little at a time, waiting until the sauce thickens before adding each new batch of milk - you should end up with a smooth sauce the consistency of double cream. Stir in the double cream and then cook for further 1-2 minutes. Season with lemon juice, to taste, and salt and freshly ground black pepper, then remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chopped parsley.

To serve, pile the buttered potatoes onto a serving platter and place the gammon on top. Pour the parsley sauce into a jug to serve alongside. Carve at the table.

[Bob Buzzard]

Great thank you, so I see that it becomes ham after cooking - thank you.

[womanofdulwich]

I think you are a sport being a vegetarian and cooking a ham that you won't eat. 👏🏼👏🏼

[Jules-and-Boo]

Ham is already cooked. They might not want you to bring something that they need to cook, unless you cook it before you go.....

[Bob Buzzard]

Yes, will cook the gammon at home and then bring the cooked ham with us there.

[ed_pete]

Bob, I take it you're a very recent convert to being a vegetarian given that you were eating "pate" a few weeks ago and you're a big fan of William Rose.

And Herefordshire, hmm, coincidence that they're in Tier 1 now?

[malumbu]

Worried that you were talking about Brexiteers, not sure how well a Gammon goes with a Woke

[Spartacus]

Considering your normal posts Bob

This one is well below-parr

[Seabag]

Bob is an incurable and dreadful Ham

[hibbs]

You've been busted Bob!

ed_pete Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Bob, I take it you're a very recent convert to

> being a vegetarian given that you were eating

> "pate" a few weeks ago and you're a big fan of

> William Rose.

> And Herefordshire, hmm, coincidence that they're

> in Tier 1 now?

[Bob Buzzard]

They just ate the ham (previously gammon) for Christmas Eve - it looked very nice.