If I cook a ham next monday or tuesday will it still be ok on Boxing Day & the weekend?

[scampadoodle]

I've got a gammon joint to cook (I simmer for an hour first, then roast) to eat on Boxing Day & after but I don't want to cook it on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, IYSWIM. And I'll be busy packing on Boxing Day as we're going away the next day so I don't want to cook.

God yes, isn't that what ham was invented for - to preserve meat? I would keep the Christmas ham in the fridge for weeks, if it lasted that long.

Why do you simmer first? I always chuck it straight in the oven - comes out much sweeter and richer that way.

As long as you keep it in the fridge it'll be fine. Or to put your mind at rest you could freeze it.

What I do, is cook it in the slow cooker (comes out sooo nice) and that way it can be cooking on boxing day so would be fresh? All you have to do is shove it in in the morning when you get a min and then take it out when you are ready for it. Cooks a lot better than in the oven IMO and from my experience it is never as nice heated up a few days later, especially if done in oven.

I planning on doing the same thing so I would say yes it should stay good for a few days just make sure its completely cool and completely covered.
After all package sandwich meat stays fine for quite a while.

That's a good point, MerryHenry, if the OP is more fastidious than me she could cook it today and then slice it and freeze it.

But presumably you cook it in the liquid so some of the flavour gets lost? Surely there's only one way to cook a ham?? (am being ironic now - how Bree van der Kamp is this convo?! )

Fastidious! Here's fastidious: when I buy fresh herbs, I wash, chop and freeze them so they don't go manky in the fridge.

I shudder. I am becoming Bree. (first person to say 'Delia' gets it in the eye - grrr)

Soak in cider, simmer for a hour, then roast, [slavers]

I put in large pot with bay leaves/onion/carrott and slat and pepper, simmer for an hour then remove skin score and smother in mustartd then sugar then rost. yummy!!!!!!!!!!!

If you simmer in cider/coke/ginger-ale, you have a fantastic cooking liquid to use as a base for soup - that's a good enough reason to boil it IMO

You don't need to add liquid in the slow cooker if thats what you meant?

I salute your superior house wifely skills, MerryTerry, I long to be that kind of person but I know I never will be. I'm proud that in recent weeks I have started freezing left over chilli, bolognese etc and wrapping the cheese in clingfilm. There's no waste in the GM house these days!

I just don't buy fresh herbs. I use the dried ones!

Thank you everyone! I will cook it on Tuesday... Incidentally, I simmer it first (in water with veg & cloves) so that I get stock for soup. If I use apple juice/cider/cola whatever I find the stock is far too sweet. Then I stick cloves in the fat after smothering it with a mustard & honey paste.

God, isn't the pig just the best animal ever? Bacon, ham, sausages, belly pork, crackling....

Chloemegjess: I don't have a slow cooker!

Charlee and Zazette - that's definitely the way to do it... gets rid of a lot of the salt from the flesh. And you don't lose anything as the stock is a fabulous base for a soup (home-made minestrone is delicious made with it).
Oven-roast for about 40 minutes or however long it takes the honey/orange juice/brown sugar to caramelise. Mmmmm that's what I'm having on Christmas Day and I can't wait

Did a gammon in the slow cooker it was yuk - far too soft for me and stringy. Got a slow cooker because of all the great reviews on mumsnet, and I cook alot with small children/pregnant - very disappointed, greasy stews and the most horrid rice pudding I've ever tasted again too soft.

Agree boil and roast gammon much more tender IME. I do find the stock too salty for soup though.

I think if you put gammon in the slow cooker and it came out stringy you probably either had a bad joint or did something wrong as I do it all the time, probably once a fortnight and it has never been stringy and has been sooo much nicer than done in the oven. Did you put any liquid in with it?

Ooh, this has made me feel Christmassy for the first time