Australian/German Christmas Ham – Katherine Firth (Australia)
In our house, we cook a mixture of German and English food for Christmas, because my husband is German and I come from Australia. Australian Christmas customs are still based on traditional English customs.
We make a baked ham as the centrepiece of our Christmas Eve dinner. (Christmas Eve is when Germans have the big Christmas celebration with a dinner, the Christmas tree and the presents.)
First I soak the gammon (which is what an uncooked ham is called) in water for a day. This takes the salt out.
Then I add:
1 chopped carrot
3 chopped sticks of celery
2 bay leaves
1 onion cut in quarters
2 cloves of garlic, crushed gently
6 whole black peppercorns
some grated nutmeg
fresh sage leaves
the ham
fresh water to cover the ham
I bring the water to the boil, and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
Then I drain the ham (now it’s boiled, it’s called a ham), cut off the rind, leaving 1/2 cm of fat, and make a glaze.
3 tablespoons of soft dark sugar (I like muscovado sugar best)
a splash of orange juice
1 teaspoon of mustard
mixed together in a small bowl to make a paste.
Score (make shallow cuts) the fat in a diamond shape. Smother with the glaze. Stud the centre of each diamond with a whole clove.
Preheat the oven to 140 C. Put the ham into the oven and cook till the centre is done. (This depends on the size of the ham. I usually take 2 hours for a rolled 1.5kg ham.) Turn the heat up to 250 C for ten minutes, till the fat is blistered and glossy.
Remove from the oven, and leave the ham to rest for 15 minutes. The ham can be eaten carved into thin slices at any temperature: hot, lukewarm or cold. It’s very good for leftovers too.
