Glaze Your Gammon

Here at Greendale, we sell uncooked gammon joints and steaks in a range of weights, smoked and unsmoked; once cooked (see Gammon product pages on our website for method), they’re delicious just as they are - the cooking also transforms them from gammon to ham, though we won’t get into that here! - but you can take the tastiness up a notch with a simple glaze and a little bit of oven time. Here’s how, taking a 2kg Greendale Gammon Joint as an example:

Cook the joint according to instructions, then remove it from the cooking liquid and set aside to cool. Sit the cooled joint in a foil-lined roasting tin, then peel away the skin so that a layer of fat is visible. Use the tip of your sharpest knife to score a criss-cross pattern into the fat, but don’t cut all the way through to the meat. Preheat the oven to 180⁰C (Gas Mark 6), and mix a generous tablespoon of English mustard with 60g runny honey, 1½ tbsp soft brown sugar and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Brush half of this mixture all over the joint, working it into the scored lines, then cook in the hot oven for 15 minutes; remove and brush with the remaining glaze, then return to the oven for another 25 minutes, or until the glaze is golden brown. After removing from the oven, let the meat rest for at least 10 minutes before carving into hearty slices and serving.

Once you’ve got the hang of the basic glaze recipe, you can tweak it by adding some extra flavours – apple and pork are a great partnership, and we can recommend adding a half-tablespoon of apple juice to your glaze, a couple of teaspoons of Greendale Apple Pie Moonshine or (our favourite) a splash of Greendale Devon Cider!

Serve Up Some Sauce

A cooked and glazed Greendale gammon joint deserves to be served with the best veg and a really good sauce to bring everything together. From traditional parsley sauce, mushroom sauce and garlic butter to hoisin sauce and mango chutney, there’s a sauce out there to suit every palate! If you fancy making your own, here are two recipes that you can whip up while the cooked meat is having its resting time.

To make a parsley sauce, wash a small bunch of fresh parsley and remove any tougher stems, then chop finely. Melt 25g butter in a saucepan over a medium-low heat, then sieve in 25g plain white flour and cook for a few minutes, stirring all the while. Next, measure out 250ml milk and add it very slowly to the pan, stirring after each addition until smooth. When you’ve added all the milk, increase the heat and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce has thickened (keep stirring, to avoid burning). Take the pan off the heat and stir in the chopped parsley, then season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

To make a quick honey and mustard sauce, place a saucepan over a low-medium heat and add 1 tbsp sunflower oil, 3 tbsp clear honey, 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Stir to mix and warm through, then slowly pour in 250ml hot stock, stir well, then bring the pan to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes, then add 2 tbsp double cream and crush in 2 peeled cloves of garlic. Simmer for a couple more minutes, until the sauce has thickened, then serve.