Ginger-Soaked Ham with Honey-Mustard Glaze

Since the thing I love to do the most is cook I figured I might put some recipes on here. After all, what is this blog apart from a hodgepodge of the things that I like to do. And anyway, I don’t really like writing, I just do it, whereas I love to cook.

The thing my friends ask me most to make is ham. It’s delicious! I love ham and can eat it all the time. It’s proper food from the old country where you’ll find ham and cabbage with champ on the menu all over the place.

I’ve tweaked this recipe over time to how I like it. It’s quite sweet though so you could replace the ginger ale with just water and some bay leaves, onion and peppercorns.

Ingredients

1. Put the ham in a pan of cold water to soak overnight (or not if you don’t have time. I’m rarely organised enough)
2. Get rid of the water, add the ginger ale and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 minutes per 450 grams.
3. In the meantime, mix the honey and mustard and put in the fridge. This will make it set so it won’t run quite so quickly when you dump it on the ham.
4. When the ham is done take it out of the ginger ale and put in a roasting tin. I think the leftover ginger ale is a bit too sweet to make a sauce with. I’ve made a gravy with it before but then it’s like just having a plate of sweets. Do save a bit for putting in the roasting tin though.
5. Preheat the oven to 190 ° C / Gas Mark 5
6. Remove the rind from the ham. Crispy ham fat must be the most delicious thing on earth. I usually trim some of the fat from the ham, then chop it up fine and chuck it in with my roast parsnips. ZOMG = AMAZING! Leave enough fat on the ham though, as it’s just as amazing there.
7. Do a criss-cross over the remaining fat and put a clove at each intersection.
8. By this point Radders the cat was bothering me for ham.
9. Pour the honey and mustard over the ham.
10. Put some of the ginger ale in the roasting tin to stop the ham drying out.
11. Stick it in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the honey and mustard have caramelized.

This is what it looks like:

Here is me having a nice time with the ham:

Here is Radders also having a nice time with the ham: