Cooking the Christmas Ham

I've bought a quarter of a smoked gammon joint from our local pork sausage, ribs and gammon shop. Only us 2 so don't need a bigger portion. I'm cooking it in a saucepan having covered it in Coca Cola, 5 thin slices of fresh ginger plus 3 cloves. I think I'll simmer it for about and hour and then let it cool overnight in the stock. Tomorrow, I'll remove the dark skin, rub some honey in the fat and put a flame gun to it for a while.
It's a tradition for me to have cold sliced ham and home made pickled onions for Christmas morning breakfast.
What are you doing with your ham this year?
Jenny namaste

 

Cold cuts and pickles are traditional on Boxing Day, for lunch, at ours
Youngest set the Christmas Breakfast menu a number of years ago (he was canny even then - speedy breakfast so he can get down to the stocking business faster!) croissants and orange juice followed by stocking sweets

 

Really? I've got an extra couple of croissants spare if you wanted to pop round ... you'll have to bring your own stocking sweets though

 

Jen, please explain why coca cola

 

'Cos the recipe said so Spruce. First time for me,
Jens

 

mmmm does it help with the flavor and colour

 

Haven't cut a slice off yet- or tasted it,

 

we live in hope then.....

 

I've cooked meat with cola but the recipes I've used also contain a measure of ketchup. The combination gives the meat a sort of sticky bbq sauce taste. Never used just cola though, so it will be interesting to see how Jenny's ham turns out

 

Ive done the coca cola recipe before and it tastes Amazing

 

Ok ive got another recipe for Gammon...Half cover the Gammon in a slow cooker with Apple juice and glaze the top of it with some honey...Slow cook the joint for 8hrs...BEAUTIFUL!!!!

 

Was yours with, or without, the addition of ketchup?
My base instinct tells me that the acid from the cola will neutralise the fat from the pork, which most chefs would say is a win-win I get that! (Fizzy cola equates - acidic ally - with traditional apple compliment).

However, my experience (of the more original cola based experiment) is that the ketchup element gives the cola a certain ... body (?) Cola (on its own) simply misses the point

And: even then .. the whole point of adding cola was (originally) a frugal experiment, not a gastronomic exercise E.G. How to use left over (flat, no longer palatable) cola? (Amy Derkacz: The Frugal Housewife)

*Grumbles to oneself how the internet has so diluted the origins of even the most basic "make do and mend" discoveries that those who trialled it no longer get even a mention: let alone, recognition!* bah, humbug *

The internet gives much in ways of knowledge, but falls very short of giving due credit :
plagiarism garners new heights. Without due credit to the originator, those "recipes" lose the subtlety of originality and, ultimately, the reasoning/warnings behind them.

One, very good, example, lies in advocating the use of flat cola as a substitute for bleach in cleaning the toilet. It does work! No objections there
What most advocates NEGLECT to mention is ... continued/prolonged use of cola as a substitute for bleach in your toilet could lead to significant discolouration of your toilet bowl due to the additives to Cola
Take Cola with meat cooking: originally, those recipes only advocated the use of COLA and would shun the use of, say, diet cola. The ingredients are not the same ergo the effect was not the same.
However, I do accept that tempus fugit and nothing, entirely, stays the same, so I'm always open to new ideas/ways of doing things
Simply: lest we forget (Our parents built their knowledge on tried and true recipes built on generations of "learning"; the internet takes that to a whole new level .. but, just be circumspect in the reading/interpretation )

 

Without the addition of Ketchup

 

Try it with one day

 

The usual;
Cover in water, add a small onion and put on top of the woodburner for several hours. Good ham needs no messing with here. Freeze the stock for chicken and ham pies or risotto.

We always get one that is far too big. I chop up the surplus and put it in the freezer for pies.