Recipe: braised ham with cumberland sauce

It took a stroke of genius to put a pig’s leg in a barrel of salt. To my mind the leg is the least satisfactory part of the pig to cook when fresh, needing pinpoint timing to remain moist and never giving the requisite quantities of fat or crackling that makes roast pork so delightful. The transformation of the meat by the action of salt is an extraordinary one that has differing but always splendid results whether performed in northwest Italy, southwestern Spain, Westphalia or Bayonne. But whereas raw ham may well be the zenith of the curer’s art, I have always loved the cooked version that is more familiar to the Anglo-Saxon diet. I can do without turkey at Christmas, I can do without Brussels sprouts, smoked salmon, a Stilton cheese and I can certainly do without Christmas pudding. I enjoy all these things, don’t get me wrong, but they are not essential. Nothing, however, can take the place of a good ham.

Many people buy a cooked ham, often of impeccable provenance – Bradenham or York, perhaps – and simply have it on hand. It is there to do a lunch or supper with baked potatoes and pickles, and then it hangs around, available for little late-evening raids when one is feeling peckish. Some of these hams can be magnificent and I wouldn’t wish to deprecate them. However, the presentation of a hot, glistening glazed ham before a large gathering – I have often served a ham for lunch on Boxing Day, for example – has a more celebratory element. Although large inroads can be made in one sitting, you would need 20 in the company before you could start to worry about the lack of ham sandwiches in a couple of days’ time.

Rowley Leigh is the chef at Le Café Anglais

rowley.leigh@ft.com

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Braised ham

Ingredients

I prefer to bone the ham – it certainly facilitates the carving – and your butcher should be happy to do so, given a bit of warning. Ask him to score the skin in diagonal lines, criss-cross fashion, and then tie it. A huge braising pan will do both cooking processes: otherwise it’s a big pot to cook it in and a roasting dish to do the final braise.

1 green gammon, weighing 8kg-10kg

1 onion

2 carrots

3 ribs of celery

Large sprig each of parsley and thyme

3 bay leaves

15 peppercorns

20 cloves

1 small dsp of Dijon mustard

300ml white wine

3 tbs soft brown sugar

● Soak the ham in a bucket of cold water for 24 hours. Put it in a pot of cold water on the stove and bring it to the boil. Drain this water, cover again with cold water and bring to the boil. Add an onion, halved, two peeled carrots and the celery. Make a bouquet garni with the herbs and add this, along with a small handful of peppercorns. Poach the ham in this stock on a very gentle heat for two-and-a-half hours.

● Lift the ham out of the stock (two strong roasting forks are the best weapons) and place on a chopping board. Strain the stock. Remove the string from the ham and peel off the skin, taking care to leave as much fat as possible. Stud the ham with the cloves and coat the ham with a paste made with the mustard, sugar and a tablespoon or two of water. Put the ham in the braising pan or oven tray and place in a hot oven (200C). Let the ham caramelise for 15 minutes.

● Pour in all but half a glassful of the white wine, cover the ham with a lid or foil and let braise another 30 minutes. Test with a skewer to check the ham is cooked: it must be hot all the way through. Lift on to a serving dish and keep warm. Mix the starch with the remaining wine and whisk into the gravy. Add 200ml of the stock and reduce gently for 10 minutes. Check the seasoning and strain.

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Cumberland sauce

Ingredients

Worth making plenty of this, since it goes with all manner of meats, but especially ham, hot or cold. It keeps very well.

450g redcurrant jelly

3 oranges

1 lemon

3 shallots

1 good piece of root ginger

3 tsp mustard powder

350ml Ruby Port

Butter, pepper

● Put the redcurrant jelly in a bowl and place in a bain marie to melt. With a fine peeler, remove the skin of the oranges and lemons, leaving any of the bitter white pith. Halve the fruit and squeeze the juice. Slice the skin into a very fine julienne, put in a little saucepan with some cold water and bring it to the boil. Simmer for three minutes and then drain the julienne and cool in some cold water. Peel the shallots and ginger, cut them into a very fine julienne and stew gently in a small knob of butter for 10 minutes. Add the blanched orange and lemon zest and juice and mustard. Let these simmer until the liquid is reduced to a syrup. Add plenty of milled pepper and the port and reduce by half. Add the melted redcurrant jelly, whisk well and remove from the heat to cool.

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Rowley’s drinking choice

Many suggest white wine with ham, but I would rather opt for a light but assertive red, a Cabernet Franc from the Loire or a young Pinot Noir, whether from the Old or New World.