Crackling ham
- Published: 30 Nov 13
- Updated: 18 Mar 24
Salty, crisp, juicy crackling ham makes a beautiful centrepiece for Christmas or Boxing Day. Maximum impact for minimum effort – just want you want during the festive season.
Add an extra sticky twist with our treacle-roast ham or try cooking it in cola for wonderful sweetness.
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Serves 10-12 -
Takes 15 min to make, 3-3½ hours to cook, plus soaking, drying and resting
Nutrition
Per 100g
- Calories
- 204kcals
- Fat
- 12.3g (4.1g saturated)
- Protein
- 23.3g
- Carbohydrates
- nil
- Fibre
- nil
- Salt
- 3g
delicious. tips
This recipe lives or dies by its crackling, so it’s worth investing in a top quality, free-range British gammon joint. Cheaper, intensively reared meat will be flabby skinned and lacking in a proper fat layer, so you’ll struggle to get it to crackle well. It’s best to go to a good butcher.
You can freeze the cooked meat, carved off the bone in batches. Defrost and use in pie fillings. Make sure it’s cooked through until piping hot.
Here’s what you need to know about ham and gammon: gammon is uncooked, cured pork from the upper part of the hind legs of a pig, whereas bacon comes from the loin (back) or belly. Once gammon is cooked it’s called ham.
Green gammon is another name for unsmoked gammon. The smoked stuff is just called smoked gammon.
Gammon comes in whole joints, bone-in or bone-out, or steaks. A bone-in half-gammon, as used in this recipe, is half a whole gammon. If you want the traditional shape to your half-gammon, ask for the knuckle (lower) half so you have a fat end and a thinner (knuckle) end.