Baked Christmas ham recipe

Lotte Duncan
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Baked Christmas ham recipe

Now, I think this is a scrummy dish to cook for friends and family on Christmas Eve.

Then eat it cold over the next few days. In doughy bread sandwiches with mustard or next to a fluffy baked potato with some more chutney and perhaps some coleslaw.

I’ve cooked many hams over the years, in many different ways, but I always come back to this recipe – it is the best.

At a glance
  • Cuisine British
  • Recipe Type Main
  • Difficulty Easy
  • Preparation time 20 mins
  • Cooking time 120 mins
  • Serves 8 people
Ingredients
  • 1.8 kg (4lbs) Uncooked gammon joint
  • 1 l (1.8pints) Medium dry cider
  • 1 l (1.8pints) Clear apple juice
  • 1 Large onion, cut into chunks
  • 2 Stalks celery, cut into chunks
  • 4 Carrots, cut into chunks
  • 2 Bay leaves
  • 20 Cloves
  • 75 g (2.6oz) Butter, softened
  • 175 g (6.2oz) Dark brown muscovado sugar
  • 1 tsp English mustard
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp Ground ginger
  • 1 tsp Ground cloves
  • 1 tsp Ground cinnamon

Step-by-step

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan oven 200°C/gas mark 7. AGA 4/3/2dr Lower roasting oven.
  2. If you have soaked the gammon, drain it and place it skin side up in a large saucepan. Pour in the cider and apple juice and add the onion, celery, carrot and bay leaves. Bring up to the boil, cover and simmer for 1½ hours.
  3. Remove the joint from the pan, peel off the skin with a knife (discard or give to the birds in the garden, they love it!) and use a sharp knife to score the fat in a diagonal pattern. Reserve the stock to for perhaps some soup – pea and ham is good. Stand the gammon in a roasting tin lined with foil. Stud the diamonds of fat with the cloves.
  4. Place the butter, sugar, mustards and spices in a medium mixing bowl and mix well to form a paste. Spread the paste over the fat. Roast the ham in the oven for about 20 minutes, basting twice during this time.
  5. Roast for another 5-10 minutes then remove from the oven and keep basting it as the sticky sauce cools. As it does the sugar starts to solidify and it will start to stick and stay to the top of the ham. Continue until as much as of the syrup as possible is on the ham. I don’t want you to worry, it will get quite toffee like and that is exactly what you want.
  6. Remove from the roasting tin and place on a serving dish. Carve at the table or quietly in the kitchen with no-one watching – always best as you can sneak a mouthful or two in before anyone else!

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