Aisling’s Special Christmas Ham Recipe

I know from using Collerans that it is not necessary to steep the ham in water overnight, but if you prefer you can do so anyway.

To cook the ham, you will need to put the following in a large pot:
2 Carrots
2 Sticks Celery
2 Bay Leaves
16 whole black peppercorn

You can get your vegetables from Glynn’s Fruit & Veg in Carnmore. Check out their website for a full range of their products.

Method:
Roughly chop all the veg and place it with the ham in a large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Leave simmer for an hour and a half once it reaches the boil.
Remove from the pot and with a sharp knife and peel off the skin while leaving the fat alone.
Score the fat in a in a crisscross manner. At this stage you should put the ham in the oven for about 30 minutes until the fat become slightly crispy.
The next stage is to add the glaze. Different people have different tastes and you can decide on your own glaze at this stage. My preference is to glaze with wholegrain mustard and honey and put plenty of cloves into the crevices of the ham.
Place the ham back in the oven at 180 degrees for about an hour and 15 minutes. You need to take it out of the oven every 15 minutes to baste.
While it is baking away in the oven you can sit back and relax with a coffee and take in the beautiful aroma of the ham as it cooks.  All that’s left to do is enjoy the eating of this beautiful ham.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!