Stock (I think it is) from a roast gammon joint.

[TheTecknician]

As the title suggests, I roasted this joint yesterday and the roasting tray was nearly full of water before the cooking was complete. I poured it all into a bowl and left it overnight. Today, the bowl had a thin layer or fat (lard?) on the top which I removed and I was left with a bowl of clear brown gelatinous gloop! I don't know why it's darker in the middle. I guess this is some kind of stock but in jelly form. Is there any culinary use for it ? I'm not into making soups and the thought of spreading brown jelly on toast doesn't appeal. I thought perhaps adding to a beef and pork ragu for pasta or adding to the dripping for roast potatoes.

By the way, it was a plain gammon joint - no cloves, treacle or marmalade glazes or other fancy stuff.

Thankyou.

It is stock, so don't add to dripping (fat). It'll be full of flavour and collagen/gelatine so good in any pork stew but check how salty it is (gammon can be salty). If you have frozen peas and leftovers of the ham, a pea and ham soup is what I'd do, even though I don't like peas..

It is indeed stock. Ham stock. You should taste it to see if it's very salty (some are, especially from smoked gammon). If it is, you'd need to dilute it.

It makes a world of difference to soups, especially with split peas or red lentils, but if that's not your thing, yes, add it to whatever you want to give a savoury, saucy punch to. But not roast potatoes - it will melt when it's heated again and will be too wet.

This does make delicious soup.. a couple of tablespoons added to any soup or gravy would be lovely.

I'd make a big pot of soup but you could also freeze in ice cube trays

Taste it before you decide what to do with it!

You can freeze it

I like to make soup with it.

If not too salty, it will make excellent risotto, with peas, some ham cubes, maybe asparagus or leek .

Thanks all. I'll be sure to do the taste test first. The gammon itself wasn't at all salty so the stock is probably where the saltiness went.

I used about a tablespoon of this stock in a beef and pork ragu I made this afternoon. I could probably have used twice as much as it really isn't very salty.