Pineapple and ginger ham

A whole cooked ham looks incredibly impressive on a buffet table and it isn’t as hard to make as you might think. Uncooked hams – or gammons, as they are often called – are easy to pick up in the supermarket. Choose one with a mild cure so that you don’t have to worry about soaking it before cooking.

Ingredients

For boiling

1 mild cure gammon joint
weighing around 1.5 kg (3 lb)
1 litre (2 pints) pineapple juice
1 large onion, quartered
1 bay leaf
4 black peppercorns

For glazing

A handful of cloves
2 tablespoons ginger conserve
2 teaspoons English mustard powder
1 tablespoon pineapple juice

Method

Place the ham in a large pan, cover it with fresh water and bring to the boil. As soon as it has come to the boil, remove the pan from the heat and tip away the water.

Place the ham in a clean pan and pour the pineapple juice over it. If the liquid does not cover the entire joint, top up with water. Add the onion bay leaf, and peppercorns. Bring the pan to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. The ham will need to cook like this for one and half hours. For a different sized ham, allow 30 minutes per pound or one hour per kilogram.

When the ham has cooked it will be a paler shade than its original livid pink. Remove from the juice and as soon as it is cool enough to handle, cut away the skin with a sharp knife. Score a diamond pattern into the fat and stud each intersection with a clove. The diamonds should be about an inch or 2.5cm wide.

Preheat your oven to 210 degrees Celsius or 410 Fahrenheit.

Mix the remaining glaze ingredients together to form a stiff paste. Place the ham in a roasting pan and smear the glaze over the meat. Cook in the oven for twenty minutes, basting after about ten minutes. Remove and allow it to cool.

Recipe Catherine Currie and Daniela Bowker
Photography Libby Bulloff Make-up and hair Lindsey Watkins Model Christopher Lantz