Home-cured Christmas gammon

- A little tricky
Ingredients
For the brine
- 180g Salt
- 1l Pressed apple juice not from concentrate
- 1l Strong dry cider
- 4l Water
- 200g Demerara sugar
- 200g Dark brown sugar or black treacle
- 20 Juniper berries
- 30g Crushed black peppercorns
- 10 Bay leaves, crushed
- 10 Cloves
- Small gammon leg joint
For the glaze
- 100g Honey
- 2tbsp English mustard
Method
- STEP 1
Heat all the brine ingredients in a large pan until the salt and sugar have dissolved, then leave to cool completely. Transfer to a non-metallic container and chill to 3–4°C.
- STEP 2
Place your piece of pork, also chilled, in the tub and submerge it completely, using a plate to weight it down. Leave the pork in the brine, in the coolest place you can find, for 3 days for every 500g of pork (pork weighing 1kg would be submerged in the brine for 6 days). If you want the gammon ready for Boxing Day, calculate the day it goes into the brine by weighing it and counting backwards from 26 December.
- STEP 3
After its allotted time, remove the ham from the cure, wipe it dry with a clean tea towel and place in a pot of clean, cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 2–5 hours, depending on the size of the meat. When you can easily push a metal skewer through the meat it is ready; turn the heat off at that point. Allow the meat to cool slightly in the liquid until you can lift it out without burning your hands.
- STEP 4
Remove the outer skin with a sharp knife but leave behind a nice covering of fat.
- STEP 5
Turn the oven up to 180°C/gas mark 4. Score the fat in a diamond pattern and mix the honey and mustard glaze.
- STEP 6
Spread the glaze over the fat and bake for 40–60 minutes to finish it off. I choose not to stud the gammon with cloves, as I find them too strong, but you can if you want a traditional look. Slice and serve either hot or cold.