Blackcurrant glazed ham

In Poland we eat quite a lot of ham on Easter I know this recipe sound more like Christmas for some people, but I make this ham all year round, when I fancy some homemade aromatic piece of cold meat.

Homemade ham is certainly a good thing. Some of those that you can see in shops have water added or are reformed from various cuts of meat. To buy a decent ham you have to pay bit more, or make your own.

I would love to make many different cold meats and hams for sandwiches or just snacking in the future, so far I only used one recipe that I have found in "Feast" by Nigella Lawson. I followed the recipe and cooked it in cherry coke and it was tasty, however the idea of cooking in coke is little bit controversial. Therefore I swapped it for cider (dry or sweet). Also I add some more things to the stock and use different types of topping - it goes well with blackcurrant jam, as well as cherry jam, and I used redcurrant jelly too.

You can use gammon, or ham. Cooking tip: allow about 1h cooking for every kilogram of meat. Mild cured meat doesn't need soaking, otherwise tip piece of meat in cold water and bring to boil, then drain and start from here.


gammon or ham
onion, unpeeled and halved
bay leaf
2-3 whole allspice
1.5l cider
some whole cloves
2-3 tbsp of blackcurrant jam
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp of smoked paprika

Place meat in a pan with onion, bay leaf and allspice and cover with cider. If you have not enough cider add some water, just to cover the meat. Use small pan, big enough to squeeze the meat in - it will leave less space to fill with cider. Bring to the boil, turn the heat down to simmer and cook accordingly to meat weight (1kg meat = 1h). Drain the meat and place on a chopping board.

Cut off the excess of fat, leaving some fat on the meat. Score the fat with a sharp knife to make diamond shapes, and stud each diamond with a clove. Place the ham on the baking tray lined with some kitchen foil.

Meanwhile heat the oven to 200C and prepare the glazing. Place jam, paprika and vinegar in a pan, bring to the boil and simmer until bubbly and sticky.

Carefully spread the glazing onto the ham and place in the hot oven for about 10 minutes, until caramelised. Remove from the oven.

Very tasty hot and cold.