Help with Christmas dinner

[DuffDuff]

We always have a large gammon joint with our Turkey.

My DM normally cooks this but this year we are not seeing her.
She has always soaked the ham for at least 24 hours before roasting.
We were chatting about it today and discussing if this is really necessary or is it something that they had to do in the good old days?

I have googled and it seems pretty split.

Im not the greatest cook so was going to buy a pre cooked ham but they all seem to be cooked in honey or fruit and we like ours plain.

So I'm turning to you lovely lot to help me out please.
Do you soak and how do you cook yours?

Thanks

I never soak mine! I know that people used to but i slow cook mine and it always turns out great.

Never soaked a gammon joint here either. I slow cook mine too.

People used to soak them to reduce the salt content I think, but I've never found that necessary.

What you can do is place it in a large pan, completely cover with water and bring to the boil. Then throw all that water away and start again with fresh water, fruit juice, cola or whatever it says in a recipe for boiling gammon that you fancy, throw in a few peppercorns, a bay leaf, some juniper berries (if you want to) and then simmer for an hour for a small joint or up to a couple of hours for a large one. Drain once it has finished cooking, then leave to go cold, then refrigerate. After that you can cook in the oven as normal to finish it off.

I've always just shoved mine in the oven as per the instructions on the packaging.

I wouldn't cook anything that required soaking for 24 hours before hand.

Thanks, I was getting worried because I haven't even bought one yet!0

DH is our family's ham and turkey cook. He doesn't soak the ham (though he would if it was a traditionally cured salted one) and uses Delia Smith's recipe. He cooks it on Christmas Eve as the oven is occupied by the turkey on Christmas Day.

Slow cook in real coke with a bay leaf amd some roughly chopped onions. Finish off in the oven for 15 mins with some maple/ honey/ golden syrup glaze. Yum!

i dont do a gammon joint now as Oh prefers turkey but when i did i used to simmer it in a big pan of water on christmas eve let it go cold overnight and roast it on the day with honey glaze

The soaking was needed when they were salted as a preserving method. Now that's not needed, so they tend not to be as strongly salted and therefore don't need soaking. I haven't soaked one in 20 years.

I simmer mine for 20 minutes per lb, plus 20 minutes. If I'm glazing, I'll do that last 20 minutes in the oven instead, but if you want it plain, don't bother with the oven stage.

I've never soaked a gammon joint prior to roasting and they've always turned out tender, tasty and unsalty. However, I've only ever done plain unsmoked joints. Smoked gammon can be saltier so advice for these might be different.

so, I didn't soak it. Just cooked it and had a piece and it is so salty :(

Dint know what to do?

Gammon is really salty - even if it's unsalted. Have you got any apple sauce you can slather over it before you serve it? Or serve with mayonnaise, etc. Something a bit sweet or bland takes the tang out of it a bit.