Ginger Beer Ham

This is a recipe I developed a couple of years ago and I’ve never looked back. I love cooking with ginger beer and proper stuff really can pack a punch. Along with the rest of the aromatics it’s really special. 

Get a green - unsmoked - gammon and I always soak it overnight. I find proper butcher gammons tend to be less salty than supermarket ones, but because the cooking liquor becomes the glaze, we can’t risk it being too salty. So soak overnight, change the water a couple of times and you're guaranteed a good result.

I use the Weber SmokeFire to add a lick of smoke to my ham. You can do it on a kettle barbecue too, or in the oven.

However you cook it, just make sure you do. It’s excellent.

Ingredients

2.5kg gammon (green or smoked)

2l ginger beer (Old Jamaica is my preferred one)

5in piece of ginger, sliced thinly, don’t bother peeling

1 onion, quartered

4 spring onion, roughly chopped

5 garlic cloves, sliced

12 pimento berries

1tbsp ground cinnamon or 1 large stick

5 thyme sprigs

1tbsp black peppercorns

½ nutmeg

1tsp English mustard (use double for French)

1tsbp treacle

Extra nutmeg and ground pimento for the glaze (optional)

Cloves

3tbsp tamarind ketchup (or tomato ketchup, brown sauce or a similar sauce)

Method

Soak the gammon overnight in a big pot of water, changing the water at least three times.

Drain and rinse the gammon. In a large saucepan, add the ginger beer, ginger, garlic, onion, spring onion, pimento, cinnamon, nutmeg and thyme. Top up with water if needed so the gammon is fully submerged.

Bring to a gentle boil and leave to simmer for 1.5 hours. Remove from liquid and leave to cool. Keep the cooking liquor.

When ham is cool, remove skin being careful to leave fat intact. Slice of excess fat but leave at least 1cm all over. 

Put the ham on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Draw a criss-cross into the fat about 1in wide and stud diamond points with a clove, pressing them firmly into the fat.  

Light your barbecue or pre-heat your oven to 180 (160fan).

Mix the tamarind ketchup (or alternative sauce) in a small saucepan with about 200ml of the cooking liquor. Add the treacle and any other spices, if using (I use nutmeg and a bit of ground pimento), stir well and bring to a rapid boil. Reduce until it’s nice and thick and then leave to cool slightly before pouring over the ham. Don’t pour all the glaze over at once.

Place into the barbecue or oven. After 10 minutes, once it’s sticky and bubbling, pour over the remaining glaze and spoon the glaze that’s slipped off back onto the ham. One dark and sticky - after a maximum of 25 minutes in total - remove and leave to cool before slicing while no one is looking and having a sneaky bite. It’s really tasty, 

Merry Christmas!