Christmas ham novice- advice?

[gerbo]

Never made a glazed Christmas ham before but my family are keen this year. There are only four of us- is it possible to make a smaller ham?

Anyone have any (fairly simple) recipes they'd recommend?

Can I buy a ham at the supermarket or do I ask a butcher? What would I ask for?!?!

Thanks in advance.

I always bought mine from the organic butcher but I am sure you can go to Morrisons too. I use Nigellas recipe in Feast for fully festive ham, never done one as big as she says tho.

leftovers not an issue, put in sandwiches or make chicken and ham pie!

I'm only not doing it this year as it was always about £20 and I felt it was a lot when we didn't need it (have a big chicken as well and there are only five of us). Is yours instead of a bird op?

Nigellas ham in coke is easy and delicious.

For the glazing part wrap your baking tray in lots of foil to avoid scrubbing burnt treacle off it for hours

It's a gammon joint you want - it's then called ham when it's cooked.

Enjoy!

They are a bit of a faff. You boil them first with aromatics (bay, sage, rosemary, carrot, celery and onion, all of which you chuck away afterwards as the water is salty.) Then peel off the rind but keep the fat on, cut a crisscross pattern on it it, glaze it with honey, stud it with cloves then finish it off by baking it in the oven until the fat caramelises. Time consuming, but they look great. I've seen some pre-prepped small ones in Waitrose and M&S which I think you just bake. They look pretty easy.

You can buy a small ham joint (I just get mine from the local butcher. You'll need to weigh it to wok out the cooking time but I use Delia's method of boiling first (makes it less salty) then adding the glaze and roasting for 30 min. I smear mine in mustard and then sprinkle brown sugar on. To get the correct cooking times you'll have to get the ham and do it by weight, it'll tell you online how many minutes per LB.

When I'm doing a small one I buy the butchers choice ones from Sainsbury's which are around £9-£10

I get mine from the supermarket.

Soak overnight in a pot of water (people say no need to bother but me and my family must be hyper sensitive to salt cos we always end up dehydrated to hell the next day after having it)

Cook in the slow cooker with a splash of water for 6hrs ish on low

Score the fat, stud with cloves, drown in brown sugar and honey, cook in the oven for 20-30 mins.

Dunded

Wow thanks everyone, I'll digest all that properly after work and decide on my plan! It's alongside a chicken for the main dinner so just need a small one.

Thanks!

I do exactly what Notatallobvious does - yay Delia! I don't find it a faff, it's well worth it! You can shove some cloves into the fat when glazing for bonus festive-ness.

I just get ours from the supermarket - it was about £15 for a 2kg-ish one.

This time I'm going to order my food, if you like to cook then go ahead with recipe and if you want to save your time and have fun with your family then just order it and enjoy with family.

I know what you mean Lyla - we did that last year. We got a nice ham pre-glazed - I think it was from Sainsbury's OP. It was quite small though.

I buy a largish gammon joint with a good layer of fat under the skin. Bake with the skin on for about half the cooking time, then using a sharp knife take the very top layer of skin off but leave the fat on. Then score the fat in diamonds and bake for the rest of the time. Once the gammon has about 30 minutes to go, slather it in marmalade that's mixed with all the mulled wine type spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves) and a good slug of Jack Daniels. Put about half on the top and let it glaze/crisp then 15mins later add the other half, cook for 15 mins more then done!

I do this every year, it is so yummy, keeps well and is amazing cold in sandwiches with melted Brie and cranberry.

I soak overnight, cook in water with bayleaves, peppercorns, a clove or two and then glaze and oven bake as described above but with a mixture of redcurrant jelly and Dijon mustard. We don't like ours overly sweet.

averagebear that sounds like a brilliant glaze recipe. I'll have to try that this year.

try and get one that looks like it came off an actual pig, the perfectly cylindrical ones can be lots of offcuts all rolled up tight

my other tip is make sure to check out the joint for skin/rind and fat, ideally you want a nice even layer of fat, and enough skin to cover it, on the bigger "triangular" shaped joints you can get fobbed off with a great wodge of flabby skin tucked underneath

I usually bring mine to the boil and then throw that water away, especially if it looks a bit frothy and scummy, then put in your bits and bobs with the fresh water and bring that back up to the boil and simmer until you are ready to glaze it in the oven
my bits and bobs tend to be onion/celery/carrot/apple/orange/cloves and peppercorns

Generally I knock half an hour off the boiling and finish it in the oven with whatever glaze

you want something sticky...brown sugar/honey/maple
something tasty ....mustard/marmalade/ginger
something spicy...raid the spice cupboard and choose something that goes with whatever you are slathering on.
and a splash of something to make all that liquid enough to mix and spread

once it is out of the boiling pan get the skin/rind off and leave the fat, score that nicely into diamonds, it's not christmas unless the ham has diamonds in and poke a clove into it in a nice pattern.

Cover the fat with the glaze and into the hot oven with it. The foil tip is excellent...all that stuff will burn itself to your roasting tin otherwise.

i usually cook a ham but this year ive bought a cooked one from Waitrose

1. 4kg only 2 of us and was £20 but i had a voucher so cost £14

i wanted unglazed but they had them glazed etc

it better be good still feel a ittle guilty buying it FGS.