by Marcus Bentley Wise

Created on: January 12, 2010

The art of cooking a good ham is one that is not to difficult to acquire and all you need to do is decide how you wish to cook it.

But the first thing you have to do is find out how it has been cured. A ham is a pork leg that has been cured with salt water called brine. Now more traditional ways of curing calls for a lot more salt, more than a modern way. So if you have a ham that has been cured in the traditional method then you will want to soak the ham before cooking. Other wise it will be very salty.

You have to soak it for about five to seven hours in cold water. Drain the water of and let is sit for a while them cook it. If your ham has been cured like most hams today then you will not have to bother with any soaking.

To cook a ham you will need about forty minutes per kilo or twenty per pound. Then allow an extra forty or twenty all depending how you worked out the weight of the ham. 

Now you have to decide how to cook it. The first way and most common way is to boil it. For this you will need a good sized pan that can fit the whole of the ham in and still have room to move around. Also if you can get something to lift the ham of the base of the pan to stop it from sticking. Now place the ham in to the pan and add the water and bring to the boil. The drain away the water add fresh water. This way you get rid of a lot of the scum that floats to the top of the water. Also this time add a onion, a few peppercorns, carrots a bay leaf and coriander seeds. Bring it up to the boil and then simmer till the time of cooking has passed.

Or you can roast the ham. Cut the skin on the ham to make a diamond pattern. You can stud the skin of the ham in the middle of each diamond with a clove. Just do not do too many as the clove flavour will over power the ham. Then place it on a roasting try. Then roast in an oven set at 200°c, 400°f or gas mark 6. At the end of the cooking take it out of the oven and straining of some of the dark roasting juices. Place them in to a sauce pan with some honey and a little brown sugar and a dash of lemon juice. Melt them together and then coat the ham with this stick rich coating. Let this cool on the ham and it will have a grate tasting glaze.

And that is about all you kneed to know about cooking a ham. Once cooked you can have it hot or cold, with salad, in a sandwich or just on its own with fresh new potatoes, one of my favourites.

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