When is a gammon not a gammon?!

The simple answer is of course once it is cooked it is then referred to as a “Ham”.  What ever we call them this is a delicious  way of eating pork and in the UK is always associated with the Christmas period – but it it too good to confine to Christmas!  There are so many different types of gammon available depending on how they have been cured and each of these produce slightly different types of ham. The curing of pork is a fascinating subject in its own right, but one that will have to wait for now!

This is a very simple cooking of a commercially produced smoked gammon.  This was actually from our local supermarket just to see what sort of results we could get, especially as they are often very inexpensive around the Christmas/New Year period!

The gammon was unwrapped and dried and placed straight on the BGE.  We were already cooking another dish at 130C, a smoked venison ragu, and so the temperature was already determined.  Normally I would cook the gammon at 150C, indirectly.  I would also usually place a collecting dish with a little water in below the gammon to catch the cooking juices.  In this case we used the ragu as the collector – the final result was great – see here

An indwelling temperature probe was placed (though you could use an instant read thermometer to check the core temperature of the developing ham periodically).  Once the core temperature reached around 55-57C the meat was removed from the BGE and the outer skin was taken off leaving as much fat as possible.  The fat was scored to give a nice hatch design and then a generous tablespoon of Bavarian mustard was rubbed into the fat.  I often use a combination of French mustard and Maple syrup or honey as described by Nic Williams – but as I didn’t want the syrups dripping into the ragu the sweet Bavarian mustard worked really well (note for the future) and was a lot easier!  The meat was then returned to the EGG and cooked until the core temperature reached at least 65C.  When I have roasted ham at this lower temperature previously the fat layer tends not to take on that lovely crusty golden finish – if that is the case it can be finished under a domestic grill for just a couple of minutes before being allowed to rest.  Wrap in tin foil and allow to rest for at least 30 mins.  We were intending to serve this cold and so it was left to cool and then placed in the fridge till needed.  Carve as preferred or slice on a domestic meat slicer if you have one to hand!