Husband has won a ham. I have questions.

[Flamingoose]

He has come home from his monthly golf game with a fucking enormous ham. It's a 'cooked on the bone ham' and seems to be cured or salted or whatever. It's sealed (vacuum packed) and has a shop sticker on it. No 'use by' or 'eat by' date though. I've shoved it in the fridge. It barely fits.

Will it last until Christmas? I've got people descending so it would come in handy.

How about if I keep it sealed, and then glaze and bake it for Christmas?

Is it like pork, in that I'm likely to kill everyone if I risk it?

(Lady Bracknell voice) "A ham bag?"

This sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.. Does it really keep this long, and as op said, what if it was already frozen?
Pmsl at a ham bag :)

Bloodybridget beat me to it.

Thank you Lady Bracknell!

Yes this is NZ, where winning meat is a thing that happens. I shall buy "a HAMbaaaaag?" next time I'm in the supermarket.

Hang on... let me take a pic of the label. Give me a min.

I'm in NZ and glazed a ham yesterday for an event I was at today. If it's sealed in plastic wrap it will keep in Fridge for ages. Google how to glaze a ham. I use marmalade, brown sugar and brandy/Orange juice yum!!

It's 4kg of dead pig leg.

@Flamingoose I have no advice, but thank you for the laugh x

DH would be overjoyed to win a ham. We did get a ham bag with a very naice ham one Christmas. It looked a bit like a thin net bag.

So it doesn't say how to store it?

I am in Australia where large fresh leg hams and ham bags loom large at Christmas. I very much doubt that a whole, Christmas ham has been frozen because most consumers can tell the difference straight away between a fresh and frozen ham. The consumer is not going to fork out the hefty price tag for a ham and then settle for a defrosted one - unless it is purchased as a defrosted ham.

Off topic, but the bone will make truly fabulous pea and ham soup. Although, I suppose pea & ham soup is probably not really suitable for NZ around Christmas time. Freezes well, though.

Just come back from shopping and the hams in the supermarkets are all use by the end of Jan/ beginning of Feb and they’re all cryovac packed like yours is.

Let me know if you can’t get a ham bag and I’ll post one over to you - they’re only a couple of $$s.

Don't freeze it. Its cooked, just leave it in the fridge.

When you want to cook it, boil it beforehand to remove the excess salt. Then glaze it and bake it.

Don't forgot to make soup with the bone!

We bought a bone in ham last week, it is dated for Jan I believe.
It is vacumn packed too, we always bake them in the oven. And always make split pea and ham soup with the bone and some of the meat.

Just checked the date on the one in our fridge, Jan. 27th, 2019.
On the Gilmour site under party essentials is a pic of a ham, but I can't read the small print underneath the pic to see if it is a BB date or something else. www.gilmours.co.nz

Baked Ham.

It's already cooked, so you only need to bake it for an hour to heat it through and make your glaze go all gooey. Delicious hot or cold for weeks of sandwiches and salad.

If you haven't got a ham bag, a pillow case will do, or we use a large muslin, soaked in vinegary water and changed every few days.

A baked ham, asparagus and pav with strawberries is to NZ Christmas what Turkey, sprouts and Xmas pud are in the UK.

I think people are confused!

Game on the bone is like boiled ham that you'd put in a sandwich the type the butcher slices at the cooked meat counter

It isn't gammon or hock that needs a long soak/slow cooked/glazed naked etc

You can use a pillow case as a ham bag.

Yep, you don't need to soak it or boil it. Just rip off the skin, slather it in some sticky stuff and bung it in the oven for an hour.

I would call the company and ask about the use by, it must be tucked away on there somewhere surely.... I thought by law they had to list it?

Best part of Christmas. You don’t have to glaze it, but it does make it taste better. So many memories of taking the ham, the Christmas cake, and the Griffins selection box on summer holiday.

My mum uses the bone to make stock and then freezes it for soup in the winter.

If you don’t want it, perhaps donate to City Mission or similar.

Yes, that ham will definitely keep until Jan vacuum packed like that. I’m actually staggered you have not seen one before??? Our shops are full of the bloody things, you can’t turn without seeing one.

Also, winning them is a thing. When I was young my mum couldn’t give them away quickly enough. She won one everywhere she went around this time of year.

Again, when I was young we used pillow cases for them. Once opened you wiped it down well and into a closed pillowcase in the fridge. Damp pillowcases that had been soaked in vinegar. Nowadays though it’s ham bags obviously. I can also remember eating nothing but ham for at least a week after Xmas. I am not exaggerating. Nothing else. It’s why it’s only once a year, it took you a year to forget about it after having to eat it every meal. Then you were looking forward to it again and begging for a sneaky slice when parents opened the bag on Xmas eve and transferred to pillowcase.

Oh yes, the pea and ham soup with the bone a fortnight after Xmas. Was amazing. Sounds odd eating pea and ham soup in the middle of summer but Mum never let that bone go to waste .

Just to add, you don’t need to bake it at all. I’m taking it it’s already smoked or honey cured as I have never known anything else as a vacuum packed ham. If having a cold spread you just slice it as is. My mum baked ours one year and no one could understand it . It tasted alright and we made an effort as she had gone to the trouble with glazing and baking but we were very underwhelmed and wanted our usual. Also, was quite shit having a hot house from oven going when we didn’t have air con back then. So, that was a once off event. When I married DH he asked for a baked one (guessing his parents used to do it as they came out so did a hot meal). Knowing my family would think WTAF, I did both, baked and cold sliced. His parents ate the baked. Everyone else including his siblings just stuffed themselves with the normal cold sliced ham.

If having it without cooking (as it’s already smoked/cured), don’t throw the upper skin/fat away. Cut it as a flap so you can get to the meat and replace the flap. Keeps it moist. And as someone said be sure to use a new ham bag (also dilute vinegar soaked and damp) every few days while you wash the previous one. So you need two on rotation. My parents replaced theirs every three days, I’m super cautious so do mine every two.

They are also sometimes given as a staff Christmas gift, especially in the trades. Don’t know if that still happens now.