Alright campers, I have emerged from my Sunday Musings to find a number of pleas for my ham recipe. Slightly random for the rest of you but there in lies the dangers of a multi-purpose blog.

Right, here goes:*

Ingredients:

– Joint of gammon or ham (bigger is better, it never goes as far as you think)
– A couple of carrots (chopped)
– handful of black peppercorns
– 1 bouquet garni (or just some leek, celery, bay leaf and fresh thyme)
– 2-3 oranges
– Seasoning (salt and ground black pepper)
– 1 jar of posh thin-slice (or rindless if that floats your boat) marmalade (you may need two jars if doing a very large ham)
– Rosemary (ideally fresh but I don’t sweat it if it’s dried)

What you do:

Ok, so you’re going to need a fairly decent sized pot/cauldron in order to boil the meat but you don’t want it to be too much bigger than the ham or it’ll take ages to get to the right temperature.

1. Put the ham in the pot and fill with water until the ham is covered.
2. Throw in the bouquet garni, carrots and peppercorns
3. Peel the zest from the oranges and add to the water.
4. Juice the oranges into the water
5. Add a pinch of salt
6. Bring to the boil
7. Reduce to simmer and continue simmering for an hour and a quarter. For large hams you may need an additional fifteen-thirty minutes. The ham should be on it’s way to cooked but not boiled to within an inch of it’s life because we’re not done yet.
TIP: If you get lots of stuff on top of the water skim it.
8. Leave to cool for thirty minutes (in the pot)
9. Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/170 C
10. Remove the meat to a chopping board. If you have proper gammon remove the skin leaving about 1/2inch of fat, score the fat in a criss-cross fashion and season generously with ground black pepper. If you have a ham that has pre-prepared skin layered on about 1/2 inch of fat you can do the same thing with the skin but be sure to cut deep enough that the flavours of the marmalade can penetrate.
11. Put the meat in the oven on a tray and roast until the fat starts to render and become a bit crispy(about twenty minutes).
TIP: Disposable trays are the best to use as the marmalade is a nightmare to clean.
12. Remove the meat from oven and smear with the marmalade until covered before returning to the oven, sprinkle the rosemary over the top.
13.  Roast for a further hour, basting the meat with the marmalade as needed.
14. Eat it.

* Cooking times will vary and you should use your own judgement as to when it’s done. Generally speaking the firmer the meat the more well done it is. Ideally you want to let the meat rest before serving.