Christmas gammon with mustard cream sauce
John and Lisa have the perfect alternative to Turkey, a succulent Christmas Ham served with a mustard sauce.
Serves 6-8
Ingredients for gammon
1 large smoked gammon joint, skin on, about 2kg
150g soft brown sugar
100ml maple syrup
100g apricot jam
Splash of brandy
2 tbsp English mustard
Ingredients for mustard sauce
100-150g (to taste) Dijon Mustard
150 ml double cream
Method for gammon
1. Preheat the oven to 180c / 160 fan.
2. Place the gammon, leaving the skin on, in a deep baking tray, on top of a cake rack or trivet.
3. Into the tray, pour 2 cups of warm water.
4. Cover the whole thing tightly with greaseproof paper, then wrap in foil, sealing really well.
5. Place in the oven and cook for 3 hours.
6. Meanwhile make the glaze. In a solid based pan, add the maple syrup and the brown sugar and bring to the boil. Add the brandy, remove from the heat and leave to cool.
7. Mix the cooled sugar mix with the apricot jam and the mustard.
8. Remove the gammon from the oven, unwrap and allow the steam to escape. Allow to cool well (overnight is best) before removing the netting.
9. Once cold, remove the netting and the skin, trying to leave as much fat on the joint as possible.
10. Decorate the ham by scoring the fat with a knife to make large diamond shapes, taking the knife from one corner to the other perpendicularly and repeating the process in the opposite direction.
11. Brush with the sugar mixture, pushing it deep into the incisions in the meat.
12. Place the ham back in the roasting tin, on a trivet, over water as before.
13. Raise the oven temperature to 200c / 180 fan and then bake the ham for another 45 minutes, basting every so often until well coloured.
14. Serve hot or cold, with a couple of spoonfuls of the ham’s cooking water drizzled across the top, plus the mustard sauce.
Method for mustard sauce
1. Pour the double cream into a pan and bring to a boil.
2. Stir through the mustard, without whisking and serve straight away.