Cooking and Serving Hams

Our answer

Nigella has served hams with a variety of accompaniments but you may like to try the Sweet And Sour Slaw from Simply Nigella that is served with the slow roasted ham. At Christmas Nigella often serves ham with her Macaroni Cheese Deluxe (from Christmas). The Christmas book also has many suggestions for seasonal salads and sides that would be suitable accompaniments to the ham and 1-2 sides would be enough if you are serving a starch as well. There is a Christmas Colseslaw (with red cabbage), Chargrilled Peppers With Pomegranate, Red Salad (with cherry tomatoes) and Christmas Salad (with radicchio). Boston Baked Beans are also good with ham and baked potatoes and can be made in advance and reheated.

Nigella uses a 2kg gammon (a cured but uncooked ham) for the Ham In Cocoa Cola recipe (from Nigella Bites and on the Nigella website) and a 5.5kg joint for the ginger glazed ham. However in the Ham In Coca Cola recipe she mentions that if your ham is larger or smaller then you should adjust the simmering time to allow for 1 hour per kilogram (approximately 30 minutes per pound) plus an extra 15 minutes for a fridge-cold gammon. The same adjustment should be made for the Ginger Glazed Ham. So for a 2.3kg gammon this would be 2 hours and 35 minutes simmering (2 hours and 20 minuts plus and extra 15 minutes). The end blast in the oven is to set the glaze so the time remains the same. For large (over 3kg) joints the time per kilo could be shorter and if possible we would suggest using a digital probe thermometer or meat thermometer inserted into the centre of the ham. Cook the ham in the cola until the internal temperature reaches 68c. Remove the ham and finish in the oven, following the recipe, by which time the internal temperature should have risen to around 76c.

Gammon hams are cured but uncooked hams. They can be either smoked or unsmoked and the Slow-Cooked Black Treacle Ham recipe will work with both types. However some people find smoked hams to be too strong in flavour and as this ham is not submerged in liquid the smokiness may be more prominent that with a more conventionally simmered gammon. So you may want to be sure that your guests like the smoked flavour before you decide which type of gammon to choose.

As the Slow-Cooked Black Treacle Ham is tightly sealed in a foil parcel and is cooked at a low (100c/212F) temperature the ham does not dry out with a longer cooking time, though 12 hours is the minimum time to make sure that it is cooked all of the way through. The timings are to give the cook maximum flexibiluty, especially in the busy festive season.

For a larger Black Treacle ham we would allow 24 hours slow cooking time. You should check that the ham is cooked all of the way through by inserting a metal skewer into the centre of the ham and holding it there for a minute. When you remove the skewer carefully check the tip and if the ham is cooked then the skewer should feel hot. If you have a meat thermometer then the internal temperature should be 76c (170F).