I've always been used to buying pre packed ham. After all, it's convenient and if you get the taste the difference ranges, it can be pretty tasty. However, for my past few food shops I've been buying ham or gammon joints to make and slice my own ham. You can REALLY taste the difference (and it works out cheaper). So here's what you need to know:
Saltiness
If you find the ham too salty (I did), soak the ham in water for 3-4 hours before cooking. Some may advise to leave overnight, but I found this took away too much of the salt and a lot of the flavour too.
Cooking
Cooking a ham/gammon joint in the oven is great, but I wanted to find a quicker way to do it, so I tried the pressure cooker. As a rule of thumb, I cooked the ham for 30 minutes per 1kg with about one mugs worth of water added. Stabilise the pressure over the high pressure setting and leave to cook.
The ham worked out perfect and needed hardly any time to steam. I found it important to use the high pressure setting in order to ensure the ham is cooked through. Also, timing with a pressure cooker is essential, therefore a few minutes either way can over or under cook the ham/gammon. So make sure you check the joint is cooked through before slicing into ham slices.
Slicing
As with most meats, it's important to leave them to rest before eating. Leave the joint to cool for a couple of hours then carve with a folk and sharp knife. Cut the joint as thinly or thickly as you like, but if you're like me, you'll be slicing it nice and thick!
Freezing
Finally, cooking a full ham or gammon joint may leave you with more sliced ham than you need. It's fine to freeze ham once it has been cooked and sliced. Easily separate the ham slices into freezer bags, defrosting thoroughly when you come to eat it.
Check out my really quick video below on how it's done.
