Boiled and baked ham
- Prepare
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Cook
- over 2 hours
- Serve
- Serves 8–10
A favourite for Christmas, a baked ham is an easy way to feed a crowd. Many hams don't need soaking these days, so ask your butcher if you're not sure.
Ingredients
- 5½–7¼kg/12–16lb ham with the bone in
- 2 onions, quartered
- few cloves
- few black peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 tbsp English mustard
- 75g/2½oz demerara sugar, depending on size of ham
- 300ml/½ pint chicken stock (to make a gravy), optional
Method
Place the soaked ham in a large pan, with the onions, cloves, peppercorns and bay leaf.
Cover with water, bring to the boil and skim away any impurities. Leave the ham to simmer, allowing 20 minutes per 450g/1lb.
Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5.
Once cooked, remove the ham from the pan and stand for 10–15 minutes before peeling away the skin leaving a layer of fat.
The fat can be left as it is or scored, creating a diamond pattern. Brush the ham with mustard and sprinkle well with the demerara sugar.
Bake the ham for 30–40 minutes, basting the ham with the juices and caramelised sugar after 20 minutes. Once golden, remove from the oven and rest for 15–30 minutes before carving, or leave until cold.
To make gravy, pour the chicken stock into the roasting pan to lift any residue in the pan and simmer until reduced by about one-third. Strain and serve hot.
Recipe tips
The ham may need to be soaked in cold water for 24 hours, changing the water occasionally. It used to be necessary to remove excess salt or the ham would be incredibly salty when cooked. If your butcher uses traditional techniques to produce ham then soaking is still a good idea. If you are buying ham from supermarkets, you can skip this step nowadays, but lots of people still choose to do it because soaking does change the texture slightly (the ham will be more tender) and it still removes some salt.
