At Anna’s Kitchen Table

It suddenly occurred to me, while sitting looking at my Christmas photographs, that I’ve never shared Nigella’s ‘ham in coke’ recipe on my blog. Bearing in mind that this blog is primarily for my daughters to be able to easily access our favourite recipes whenever they so wish, this seems to be a glaring omission on my part, one that I’m anxious (and pleased!) to remedy.

My whole family love this recipe, we really do, sometimes having huge slices of the treacly, sticky ham with macaroni cheese, or as the cold cut part of a buffet, or, as we did on Boxing day, as part of gorgeous ham, turkey, stuffing and gravy sandwiches.

Boxing day was fun, more relaxed than Christmas day, just soup, ham in coke, turkey leftovers and mountains of those delicious sandwiches. Oh and ’20 Questions’ with the family. Fun indeed.

The ham also lend itself to being cubed and stored for future use in a chicken/turkey and ham pie, delicious.

Ham In coca-cola: Based on Nigella Lawson’s recipe.

2 kg gammon joint (we prefer unsmoked as it far less salty)

2 litres coca-cola

1 onion, halved.

Place the onion, ham and coke in a large pan and boil for as long as the directions on the packet state, to ensure the ham is cooked though. If you do not have directions, go on about 1hr cooking her kilo.

Once the ham is cooked, remove the skin, leaving the fat behind and stud with whole cloves.

Spread with plenty of black treacle (I use far more than the 1 tbsp Nigella states)

Pat on about 2 tsp English mustard powder and 2 tbsp Demerara sugar (or soft brown sugar) I no longer measure ow, I just sprinkle on what seems pleasing to my eye.

Bake at 220 deg.C for about 10 minutes until beautifully bronzed and burnished