Ingredients
- 2.5kg raw gammon with good skin covering
- A small handful of good quality hay
- Cloves
- 1 onion
- About 20 peppercorns
- A good glug of Armagh Bramley Apple Infused Balsamic Vinegar
- Half a glassful of liquid (water will do) to stop it from drying out
Method
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C Fan/Gas Mark 7.
- Put the hay in the bottom of a roasting dish, chop up the onion and add the liquid.
- Add around 15 cloves, and the peppercorns.
- Sit the gammon on the top of this, and then cover with some grease proof paper (I actually keep my butter papers and place one or more of these on the gammon).
- Cover well with a couple of layers of aluminium foil and seal around the edges of the roasting dish.
- Place in the preheated oven for one hour, and then turn the oven down to approximately 140°C/120°C Fan/Gas Mark 1 for a couple of hours. Use a thermometer to check that the ham is cooked by sticking it into the middle of the joint. It needs to reach around 75 degrees.
- Remove it from the oven and you can either continue the process at this point, or allow it to become cold.
- Increase the oven back to 220°C/200°C Fan/Gas Mark 7.
- Carefully remove the outer layer of skin from the ham and you should be left with a good layer of fat. Remove from the roasting tin and throw away the hay and onion etc. (or you could keep the juice for delicious stock!).
- Stick cloves all over the fat at approximately 3cm apart. Drizzle over the Apple Balsamic and then gently sprinkle over the demerara sugar to form a crust. Pat this down to help it hold in the oven.
- Place into the hot oven for approximately 30 mins. You should check it half way through to see that the sugar is not burning, but just caramelising on the top of your ham.
- Allow to cool in the roasting tray before transferring to a serving platter.
- You could serve this with a good Cumberland sauce.
