How Do I Adjust The Cooking Time Of Slow Cooked Black Treacle Ham?

Our answer

Nigella's Slow Cooked Black Treacle Ham (from Simply Nigella and on the Nigella website) recipe uses a 3.5kg ham and suggests a quick blast in a hot oven, followed by a cooking time of 15-24 hours in a low oven. The slow cooking method is very gentle and the ham is sealed in a foil package, meaning that juices should not escape and the ham should remain moist during the long coking time. For a smaller ham you can reduce the cooking time a little but for a 2kg ham we would suggest using the shorter end of the cooking time range, i.e. 15 hours.

Unfortunately we have not cooked this ham in a slow cooker as a slow cooker does not have the capacity to give the ham an initial 30 minutes cooking at high heat. We are also slightly cautious on recommending using a slow cooker as a 3.5kg ham may be too large to fit in most slow cookers and also many models of slow cooker usually cook most effectively when the meat is partially immersed in liquid.