Festive Ham Issues

[Unemfuckingployable]

Every Christmas I cook a whole ham on the bone. Every Christmas I try to boil it in a 25cm stockpot, swear a lot, and end up chopping it in half.
What sort of pan should I be cooking it in?
I have Googled and Googled, and all anyone will say is ‘a very large pan.’ Well how large is very large? And is the crucial dimension height or diameter?

Surely that depends on the size of your ham!?

Aren’t whole hams fairly standard?

No, because it depends how big the pig was...like you can get 1kg chickens and 2.5kg chickens, it depends on the breed, feed, age etc.

Fair enough. Ok so my ham from the butcher is usually bigger than 25cm across the bottom and too tall to get the lid of the stockpot on.
If I get a 40cm pan that will definitely be big enough, but how much does it matter if the ham’s rattling around a bit?

I've just measured my ham, pan

I do Nigellas Ham in Coke, every year but a much smaller ham than yours- about 2Kgs. My pan is 25cms, and there is space around it, it doesn't matter it always tates fab. So I think a 40 cm pan would be just right for a whole ham!

I think you’ll need a very deep pan for a whole ham on the bone. It’s for that reason that I normally get a whole horseshoe gammon (which is still a monstrous size!!) and means I don’t need to fight to get a lid on. However if I had to do a whole ham on the bone I’d be looking for something probably 30-40cm diameter and 40-60cm deep. You’re probably looking for a catering pan rather than the sort of pans you get if you look up stock pots or large pans.

I struggled for years with a big Le Creuset casserole dish I inherited from my mum. It was never deep enough to get the lid on. I bought a stockpot from Sainsbury’s which is fab. Probably not big enough for your beast though.

I’d agree to try a catering website for trade for a mahoosive one.

If you don't want to buy a bigger pan have the butcher cut it to size and put the smaller end in for the last hour or so of cooking. You can use the smaller end to make scraps of ham for cooking. If you do want a bigger pan you will probably need to go to a cooking shop and buy a large Stock pot or a jam pan.

yup, preserving pan is what I was going to suggest

eBay have a catering stockpot for £23.99 15L diameter 31cm depth 24cm. I’d imagine that’d do the job?

Thank you everyone - I knew Mumsnet would have the answers. I think a catering stockpot sounds like the answer. Don’t mind shelling out as I do mass catering on a fairly regular basis.
The ham needs to do Boxing Day when we are 6 and then 27th when we are 11 adults and 5 children.
40cm diameter, 60cm tall?