Peter Timbs Glazed Ham
With spiced peach and ginger beer
Serves a party!
Prep 20 minutes | Cooking 2 hours
1 Peter Timbs whole smoked ham leg
1 cup (250ml) ginger beer
1 (400g) can of peaches in juice
2/3 cup (160g) firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup (60ml) white wine vinegar
1 tsp each ground allspice and sumac
½ tsp each ground cloves, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper
3 bay leaves
Whole cloves to stud ham
Herbs to decorate hock
To make the glaze, place ginger beer, canned peaches (including juice), sugar, vinegar, and ground spices in a saucepan. Use a stick blender to blitz until smooth. Add bay leaves and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar, then reduce heat slightly and cook for a further 10–15 minutes or until reduced by half. Set aside to cool slightly.
Remove all plastic from the ham and add any residual juices from the packaging to the prepared glaze. Using a small sharp knife, cut around ham shank, then carefully run a knife under the skin, around the edge of the ham.
Using fingertips, separate the fat from the skin and gently peel away, running your fingers between the rind and the fat to lift off skin in one piece. Discard skin.
Score the fat of the ham in parallel lines, 2cm apart. Then again, in the opposite direction, to create a grid. Spike corners of cut squares with cloves.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a shallow oven tray with foil and then baking paper. Place ham on prepared tray and pour over prepared glaze. Roast ham, basting with glaze from the roasting pan every 20 minutes for two hours or until caramelised.
Wrap the hock of the ham with baking paper and a piece of material and fasten with twine or ribbon. This will make carving easier. Add hard herbs for decoration and spoon over the remaining glaze to serve.