This was truly the best ham I ever eaten. It was so moist and the sticky glaze was delicious. I don’t like ingredients in coca cola but understand it’s tenderising quality so I wanted to find a more natural alternative and came across rosalilium’s recipe which used ginger beer. I love Ginger so thought what a great idea and my gosh this will definitely become the go to recipe for gammon joints. It is so nice I have eaten it 3 days in row two lunches and one dinner! Please give it a go you won’t regret it.

Ingredients

• 1.5 – 2kg Gammon Joint
• 2 bottles of Ginger Beer
• 1 large onion, peeled and quartered

For the glaze

• 20 whole cloves
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1tsp ground ginger

Method

1. My gammon was smoked so we soaked it in cold water overnight.
2. In a deep saucepan place the gammon skin side down with the onion and cover with the ginger beer. bring to the boil and then reduce to a low simmer with the lid on for about 2 hours (or adapt to the size of your joint giving an hour per kilo). Remove carefully from the pan and allow to cool a bit.
3. Preheat the oven to 190C (fan).
4. Remove the skin with a sharp knife leaving just a thin layer of fat. Score the fat diagonally both ways to create diamonds. Poke a clove into each corner of the diamonds. Gently smooth the golden syrup over the fat without dislodging the cloves, followed my smearing the mustard over the top and finally sprinkle the sugar and ginger over evenly.
5. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes or so until the coating looks sticky and caramelised.