Glazed Ham with Ginger, Lime & Pink Peppercorns

Serves 20 or more

Make sure you buy a cooked ham on the bone. A roll of long tin foil will make an easy job of lining the oven dish. Have the ham at room temperature before cooking or glazing it.

Glazed Ham with Ginger Lime Pink Peppercorns Photo: Julie Biuso

Ingredients

• 1 free-range leg of ham, approximately 8-9kg, cooked on the bone
• 100g piece ginger, peeled and coarsely grated
• 1 cup (150g) palm sugar, crushed
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely crushed
• 6 shredded makrut lime leaves
• 2 Tbsp lime juice
• 2 red chillies, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp crushed dried pink peppercorns (available from supermarkets)
• 1 Tbsp whole cloves
• 3 Tbsp lychee or pineapple juice
• Long tin foil and baking paper

Method

1. If liked, cut a scallop pattern around the shank end of the ham skin. Working from there, remove the ham's skin, sliding your fingers between the skin and fat and easing off the skin. Score diamonds into the fat with a sharp knife, but don’t cut into the meat. Line a large baking dish with a double thickness of tin foil then with baking paper (the tin foil will save on washing up, and the baking paper stops the ham from sticking to the foil). Raise the foil above the edges of tin. This will catch drips of glaze falling off ham and prevent flare-ups in the oven. Put the ham in the dish. Squeeze the juice from the ginger into a bowl. Add the palm sugar and crush with a spoon until dissolved. Add the rest of the ingredients and spoon over the ham.

2. Preheat oven to 150°C and bake for 1½ hours, basting the ham with the juices every 20 or so minutes. Increase heat to 170°C (or keep oven on the same temperature but turn to fan bake) and cook for a further 20-30 minutes until the glaze is golden.

3. Transfer ham to a board or set it atop a ham stand, and slice thinly with a sharp long-bladed knife. I find it easiest to make a vertical cut in the middle of the ham (I am right-handed, so have the shank on my left), then to slice pieces first to the right of the vertical cut, then to the left of it. This way everyone gets a nice slice of ham with a little fat and glaze on the edge.

Recipe Notes

If you are only glazing the ham and intend serving it cold, cook on a higher heat for a shorter period. Preheat oven to 200°C. It will take about 45 minutes to glaze the ham. A little charring is simply delicious, but once parts of the glaze are dark enough, place small pieces of foil on top to deflect heat.

There are many ways to carve a ham. I find the following one mentioned above the easiest to remember and it ensures that every slice gets a little fat. If you are right-handed, place the shank of the leg to your left. Slice vertically down through the fat, about two-thirds along the leg from the shank end. Stop when you meet the bone. Slice another cut parallel to the first, but at a slight angle, making a thin wedge-shaped slice that can be levered out. Now slice out thin wedges, first from the right side, then from the left. When you are no longer able to slice like this, turn the ham over and slice the underside, cutting across the grain of the meat as much as possible.

Many people prefer to slice right across the meat, lifting off 90% of the fat with the first slice. I don’t agree with this method, not only because it robs all but the first few diners of a little fat with the lean, but because, if the ham is to be stored and used again, the fat will keep the meat moist and sweet.