| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 5 hr |
| Prep: | 10 min |
| Cook: | 4 hr 50 min |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (12-pound) joint (mild cure boneless) ham
- 7 quarts dry ginger ale
- 1 cup chunky ginger preserves*
- 2 tablespoons hot English mustard
- 1/2 cup soft dark brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions
- Place the joint in a large pan over the hob, or burner, and add 7 quarts of dry ginger ale. Bring the pan to the boil then lower the heat slightly so that it keeps bubbling steadily for 4 1/2 hours.
- Towards the end of the 4 1/2 hours, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and begin the glaze.
- In a bowl, add 1 cup of chunky ginger preserves. Stir in 2 tablespoons of hot English mustard. Add 1/2 a cup of soft, dark brown sugar and sprinkle in 1/2 a teaspoon of ground cloves.
- After 4 1/2 hours, gently lift the ham out of the pan and place on a foil-lined baking tray. Carefully cut away the skin, leaving a thin layer of fat. There is no need to score the surface, simply slap on the glaze and place the tray with the ham into the oven for 20 minutes.
- Serve hot or cold.
Reviews
Nigella’s recipe is superb in our opinion. My husband is Welsh and is used to “gammon” ham…which is an irish cured ham. Once a year I purchase a traditional cured 10 lb irish ham joint from a US based irish importer. The ginger glaze is definitely worth spending the effort finding the ingredients for. Both can be found in supermarkets like Stop and Shop and Shaws. The key to the “deliciousness” of this ham is the boiling in ginger ale. I use my big sauce pot and put three two liter bottles of ginger ale and the ham and let it boil for 2-3 hours. Since it is already cured, I could boil it as little as I’d like. The glazing/baking stage is short and easy. The glaze easily sticks to the ham and really gives it a great flavor. We love it and look forward to the holidays just so we can enjoy this recipe. Nigella hit a homer with this one.
Made this ham for Easter sunday to rave reviews!! It was oh,sooo good! The only changes I made were: I simmered the ham in the gingerale for the 20 min per pound it recommends for precooked hams, I used spicey brown mustard because thats what I had, and I only used 1/4 tsp of the ground ginger in ORANGE marmalade because we are not big ginger lovers. WOW, talk about moist and tender, tart and sweet, delicious!! Thanks Nigella!
Hi all, I’ve been doing some research for this recipe regarding this cooked vrs uncooked ham issue. What I have found is that people need to purchase a dry-cured ham (opposed to the standard wet-cured ham- which is the pre-cooked type. The other thing I founbd out is that once you recieve the ham you need to soak it for two days in cold water, with eight hourly water changes, to re-hydrate the ham and remove excess salt. You can then cook it as per this recipe. Hope this helps others as it took me a while to work this all out. Happy cooking and of course eating :
The first and only ham recipe I’ve ever made and even the couple that were self-professed ham-haters loved it! I couldn’t get a fresh ham, so just cooked a small (3kg smoked picnic shoulder roast in 2 L ginger ale for about 2 hours before putting in the oven with the glaze. Even with 2 hours, it practiaclly fell apart when I lifted it out of the pot. But sooo good….
I have made this ham many times always to rave reviews. I do boil it in the ginger ale even though I use a boneless precooked tavern ham. The ginger ale makes it so moist and tender. Follow the recipe as written. You can’t mess this one up!
If my understanding of this is correct, unless you live in the U.K. and have access to raw cured ham, you do NOT need to boil the ham for 4 1/2 hours. I would proceed with the recipe after that point on though. This then turns into a normal “baked ham” recipe. So your first step would be to pour on the glaze and cook the ham until heated through (it depends on the size of your ham, it should state the length of time necessary on the package) since in the U.S. hams are always pre-cooked. I hope this helps everyone with questions about this!
I have yet to try this, but I WILL. Do not understand what a joint ham is. Here in the states is it a whole smoked ham? reading that the skin must be removed tends to make me belive this. but, how can it be boneless??? geez i need more info.. who can help>?
wouldn,tcook a ham joint any other way. melts in your mouth
Ummm…..Wooowww! This was yummy! I did double the glaze and just used directly over the ham. I also halved the mustard and cloves, used apricot/pineapple jam and added about 1 tbsp fresh ginger. Turned out wonderful. Everyone raved. I was worried cause I have never done a ham that wasn’t spiral sliced with glaze included. I got a boned-in smoked ham shank and is was DELICIOUS…..You Must Try!!!
If you use a precooked spiral ham would you still cook in crockpot for a little less than 4 hours then in oven for 20 min? I thought that it may be too long as well, and get mushy?