For some reason I've never cooked a ham before, possibly because Appleton's butchers in Ripon do such tasty sliced ham (see also: Hatty's tea shop). So for this week's bumper Christmas issue, I've made a festive glazed ham studded with cloves, and a batch of pease pudding to go with the cold leftovers.
The recipe for the baked ham was easy enough to find: I used a 1977 St Michael All Colour cookery book, a joyous riot of 70s colours sourced from a secondhand shop on Brick Lane. The pease pudding recipe was a bit trickier to find, but as southerners always look at me blankly when I mention it, I tried Elizabeth Craig's Scottish Cookery book from 1965, a kind donation from a fellow Barbicanite. Her recipe is straightforward but doesn't mention the involvement of any ham. Mrs Beeton's All About Cookery (awarded to Edna Dash for third place a cake-making competition in 1933) has two versions, one of which involves boiling the peas in a muslin pouch alongside the ham. As it turned out, my pan wasn't big enough for both, so I cooked the peas separately and topped up the cooking water with a little ham stock.
Ingredients
Glazed Ham:
(Serves at least 4 with plenty of leftovers for a choosy tea)
1 smoked gammon* joint (about 1.5 - 2 kg), either soaked overnight in cold water or boiled in water for 10 minutes.
For the stock
6 peppercorns
6 juniper berries
2 carrots, scrubbed and cut into large chunks
2 small onions, peeled, halved and studded with a few cloves
2 stocks of celery, cut into large chunks
3 bay leaves
For the glaze
2 tbsp runny honey
2 tbsp English mustard
About 12 cloves
*if you're wondering, as I did, what the difference is between gammon and ham, they're the same cut of meat but gammon is the raw joint and ham is the cooked result.
Pease pudding
(Serves enough - not many people like it!)
250ml dried split peas
1 egg
1 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
Glazed ham method
1. Drain the joint and discard the water. Cover with fresh cold water and add the stock ingredients. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes per 500g until tender.
2. Remove from the pan and allow to cool slightly (the cooking liquid can be strained to make a lovely ham stock). Heat the oven to 200C, and make the glaze by mixing together the mustard and honey.
3. Remove the rind for the joint (it will peel away quite easily), leaving as much fat as possible. Score the fat in a diamond pattern and press a clove into the middle of each diamond. Brush the whole joint with half the glaze.
4. Bake on a roasting tray in the oven for 10 minutes then add the rest of the glaze and bake for another 10 minutes until brown and crisp. Rest the joint for 15 minutes before carving and serving.
The sweetness of the joint is well balanced with creamy potatoes (dauphinoise or mash) and some punchy green veg such as sprouts.
Pease pudding method
1. Soak the peas in water for a couple of hours then drain and tie up in a piece of muslin or pudding cloth.
2. Place the bag of peas in a pan of boiling water (or alongside the ham if you've got a pan big enough) and simmer for 1.5 hours until very soft.
3. Drain the peas then rub them through a wire sieve to make a purée - almost all of the peas will go through.
4. Add the beaten egg and butter, season with salt and butter and add a little sugar to taste if needed.
5. Tie up tightly in the muslin again and simmer for another 20 minutes.
The end result is a rather unappetising yellowy-green purée but for me it tastes just as it should with the leftover ham and some cheese and pickle.
Has anyone else even heard of it? Anyone like it?!
