MY CHRISTMAS HAM RECIPE I love a Christmas ham and it’s far superior to turkey, though I’m weirdly traditional and have to have turkey on Christmas Day. This is perfect in the run up to Christmas with other cold cuts, pickles, cheeses and crusty bread. And I like to think it’s pretty easy to make. I bought a 2kg boneless gammon joint from Tesco (you’ll find supermarkets have offers on at this time of year, so look around for good deals) and this will feed us way beyond one meal. I put it in a slow cooker with a roughly chopped onion, carrot and two leeks. To that, I added a bay leaf, a cinnamon stick and four cloves, and 2litres of cola (not the diet kind). The cola does a great job of adding a treacly sweetness to the meat, and draws out some of the salt from curing too. I cooked my joint for about five hours on high. And it was beautifully moist. But the special part comes in the form of its glaze. I like to use 2tbsp of whole grain mustard, 2tbsp of honey and 1tsp of soft brown sugar. The sugar thickens the mixture and I find it caramelises much better with this. I have three tips here: line your baking dish for easy clean-up, double-glaze and don’t have your oven on too high! So remove the rind, score the fat, use half of your mixture to glaze and add to an preheated oven at 180°C for about 20 minutes, then remove, glaze again and pop back in the oven until caramelised and golden. Leave to rest a little before carving. We had it with dauphinois potatoes and peas last night, and tonight it’ll be part of lots of nibbles like I described earlier. Enjoy! #christmasrecipes #christmasham #christmashamrecipe