Festive Ham

[loriusgarrulus]

Had this cooking overnight. The flavour and moistness is amazing. If you haven't got a Sous Vide you could maybe improvise using a roasting bag and a water bath using a large casserole with lid in the oven or if you have pure stainless steel pans with steel handles that can go in the oven as it only needs 65C. It might not give the precision of the sous vide, but would give an approximate temperature. You can get the air out of the bag by gradually lowering it into a bowl of water which will force the air out, then seal it.

 

Festive Ham Adapted from Sous Vide: The Art of Precision Cooking

Serves 8

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (5 to 6 ½ pound/2.5 to 3 kg) boneless gammon
• 5 tablespoons (80 g) Dijon mustard
• 3 ½ tablespoons (65 g) maple syrup
• 3 ½ tablespoons (65 g) honey
• 2 oranges (peel only)
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) Mixed Spice Powder
• 6 bay leaves
• 6 pods star anise
• 6 ½ ounces (200 ml) cola
• 20 juniper berries
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) chopped thyme
• 1/3 cup (100 ml) ginger syrup ( I used chopped pieces of crystallised ginger in boiling water works well)
• 6 whole cloves

DIRECTIONS

1. Fill and preheat the SousVide Supreme water oven to 149F/65C.
2. Put all ingredients, except the ham, in a saucepan on the stovetop and gently simmer for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. Put the ham into a large cooking pouch, pour the cool liquor over it, and vacuum seal. (Take care, with suction sealers, not to allow liquid to be sucked into the suction portal. If you sealer has a Moist sealing option, use it to create a stronger seal. See tips for sealing liquid rich foods, here.)
4. Submerge the pouch in the water oven to cook for 12 hours.
5. Just before the cooking time has elapsed, or when ready to finish and serve, preheat the conventional oven to 400F/200C.
6. Remove the ham from its pouch and transfer to a roasting pan and roast in the hot oven for 10 minutes for lovely, crispy fat.
7. Transfer to a platter, slice, and enjoy with your favorite side dishes.

Note: I found the ham needed longer than 10 minutes to crisp up. I left the rind intact during water cooking and diamond pattern cut it before it went in the dry oven as it was easier to cut after the 12 hour cooking.

Edited November 15, 2014 by loriusgarrulus

[ditchman]

i had a ham cooked in coca-cola and hay once..