This post is a copy of a post I made to the cooking bulletin board at work.....
I KNEW Nigella wouldn't lie to me! I can highly recommend this method of cooking your celebration ham! (PS: The Christmas Cake Trifle was a hit too!)You may recall my request for ways to prepare my Christmas Ham...after much deliberation I chose the Nigella Lawson Coco-Cola method and I wanted to be sure to share with you the experience I had AND the outcome.
Firstly, let me tell you about the ham......I toddled off to my local butcher. George the Butcher and I have a very special relationship; I ask for a kilo of something, he gives me 1.5 kilos (same price for you beautiful lady!) If now you are thinking of Con the Fruiterer, you are in the exact same brainspace as me! George and his lovely wife Helen have been my butchers for 8 years and look after me VERY well....(they even said they would deliver 50k to me in my new house!)
I asked George to source for me a small leg of mildly cured ham, about 5-6 kilos or so would be fine! George (bless him) calls me on the Tuesday before Christmas to tell me that he has a beautiful leg of ham for me. "A little larger than 5-6 kilos," he says, "but will make for fabulous Christmas lunch, you wait and see beautiful lady!!!" A "little" larger turned out to be 11 kilos! And if you recall the Nigella method of cooking (simmering in Coke, then baking) you may well pre-empt my next dilemma! When I told George how I was going to prepare it - he was flabbergasted! I was flabbergasted at the size of it but didn't want to make him feel bad so took the ham anyway!
Firstly, I had to all but clear out my fridge to fit it in for the few days before Christmas!
Secondly - I didn't have a pan big enough to simmer it in! But, luckily after much searching and yellowpaging, on the Friday I found one at The Chef's Hat in South Melbourne (WOW what a shop - cooks' paradise). A nice 40 litre boiler made for my 11kg ham! What a relief - I had mouthed off about this ham so much I was committed to doing it (with hindsight I should be committed for committing to it!). Next, the ham only JUST fit in my oven diagonally, but didn't fit any of my baking trays. However it did fit one of the throw-away foil ones! Again.....Lucky me!!
The next issue was the four litres of coke I had purchased weren't quite enough to cover the massive piece of pork, so I picked up 4 more litres on the way home with the saucepan. You guessed it - after many screams of "I NEED MORE COKE" there was another mercy dash (or two) to the Seven 11 for more of the sticky brown stuff....heaven knows what the neighbours were thinking! EIGHTEEN LITRES OF COKE LATER my ham was covered and simmering nicely. The saucepan just fitted in the space between the cooktop and the range hood and I used all four burners to get the liquid to simmering point.
Now, the recipe called for 1 hour per kilo of ham, but I wasn't game enough to leave it for that long, so I simmered it for a little over 4 hours, but I did leave it sitting in the coke till it was cool(er) and easier to handle. I must tell you here that the smell was NOT the most pleasant thing I've smelt cooking....hot sickly coke with onions? Uuuuugh! And it stuck around for days.
Once simmering was complete, getting the massive saucepan, with 18 litres of coke, and 11kg of ham OFF the stove was a nightmare and had the entire household in fits of giggles for most of the evening! We did get it out the saucepan and into the backing dish eventually, removed the skin (which came away very easily), basted (maple syrup and mustard powder - NOT treacle) and baked. At this point, I was concerned and had to try a little piece and I was not disappointed. I then adorned it with the traditional pineapple and cherries, basted a little more, baked a little longer and VOILA! Sensational Christmas ham.....we did have to reinforce the Christmas table with steel girders to carry the weight of it, but it did look fabulous!
For all this trouble, I The taste was sensational and while I may WILL ensure I get a MUCH smaller ham next year - I will be cooking it in this manner again. It was a hit. The entire family enjoyed it and begged for leftovers!
And here's the recipe for those game enough to give it a go:(I'm sorry this is from a website somewhere I suspect, but the link and referencece was not provided to me, however I did happen to catch the episode of Nigella on Fox a week or so later and it's almost word for word).
Ham in Coca Cola by Nigella
This recipe started off in How to Eat, but has been subject to some rejigging since (just because it's not in my nature to leave completely alone), and I don't apologise for reproducing, or rather recasting, it because I simply cannot urge you to try this strongly enough. The first time I made it, it was, to be frank, really just out of amused interest. I'd heard, and read, about this culinary tradition from the deep South, but wasn't expecting it, in all honesty, to be good.
The truth is it's magnificent, and makes converts of anyone who eats it. But, if you think about it, it's not surprising it should work: the sweet, spiky drink just infuses it with spirit of barbecue. I have to force myself to cook ham any other way now; though often I don't bother with the glaze but just leave it for longer in the bubbling Coke instead. And the salty, sweet liquor it leaves behind in the pot after it's cooked makes an instant base for the most fabulous black bean soup.
But just one thing before we start: don't even consider using diet Coke; it's full-fat or nothing.
2kg mild-cure gammon
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
2-litre bottle of Coca-ColaGlaze
a handful of cloves
1 heaped tablespoon black treacle
2 teaspoons English mustard powder
2 tablespoons demerara sugar
I find now that mild-cure gammon doesn't need soaking, but if you know that you're dealing with a salty piece, then put it in a pan covered with cold water, bring to the boil, then tip into a colander in the sink and start from here; otherwise, put the gammon in a pan, skin-side down if it fits like that, add the onion, then pour over the Coke.
Bring to the boil, reduce to a good simmer, put the lid on, though not tightly, and cook for just under 2 and a half hours. If your joint is larger or smaller, work out timing by reckoning on an hour per kilo, remembering that it's going to get a quick blast in the oven later. But do take into account that if the gammon's been in the fridge right up to the moment you cook it, you will have to give it a good 15 minutes or so extra so that the interior is properly cooked.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 240ºC/gas mark 9.
When the ham's had its time (and ham it is, now it's cooked, though it's true Americans call it ham from its uncooked state) take it out of the pan (but do NOT throw away the cooking liquid) and let cool a little for ease of handling. (Indeed, you can let it cool completely then finish off the cooking at some later stage if you want). Then remove the skin, leaving a thin layer of fat. Score the fat with a sharp knife to make fairly large diamond shapes, and stud each diamond with a clove.
Then carefully spread the treacle over the bark-budded skin, taking care not to dislodge the cloves. Gently pat the mustard and sugar onto the sticky fat. Cook in a foil-lined roasting tin for approximately 10 minutes or until the glaze is burnished and bubbly.
Should you want to do the braising stage in advance and then let the ham cool, clove and glaze it and give it 30-40 minutes, from room temperature, at 180ºC/gas mark 4, turning up the heat towards the end if you think it needs it.
Serves 8
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