Recipe- Beer and Maple Syrup glazed Ham

So, it must be near Christmas if the butchers have lots of hams in stock, so how could i miss the opportunity to do one of my favourite recipes;

Ham cooked in Beer and glazed with Maple Syrup.

Ingredients:
Ham- preferably unsalted and unsmoked.  2-2.5 KG is a nice size to cook
6-8 bottles of Morlands Old Speckled Hen Ale - a full bodied beer.

2 large Shallots
2 large Sprigs of fresh Rosemary
1 Large Chilli

100 ml of good Maple Syrup
2 Tablespoons of strong mustard, i prefer Tracklements
Black peppercorns
Reduced cooking stock.

Take one large pan, and place the ham in the bottom. Roughly chop the chilli  (seeds and all) and both shallots and place in the pan along with the Rosemary. Cover the ham with the beer, top up a little with water if you do not quite have enough. Bring to the boil slowly, be careful as beer can bubble up very quickly if you let it. Turn the meet occasionally during the cooking to get an even spread of heat.
Let this simmer now with the lid on,  for about 1 hour per Kg of Ham.

The beauty of this recipe is that you do not have to do it in one go, at this stage the ham should now be cooked ( 2.5 kg takes about two and a half to 3 hours) . Let it cool for a while as you need to prepare the skin for the next stage. You could roast and glaze the ham the following day for example.

Take the outer hard layer of skin of the Ham, cut it off as thinly as possible to retain some of the fat.
When this has been done, score lots of lines in a diamond pattern into the fat- this is so the fat renders down further when we roast it later, and so that we can put on lots of the glaze too.

To make the glaze, reduce what is left of the cooking stock down to about 250-300 ml.
Pour this into a jug, along with the Maple syrup, mustard and crushed black peppercorns.

Mix this glaze until it becomes a nice sticky consistency, adding more Maple Syrup  ( or treacle if you prefer) and brown sugar if you want it really sweet. Spread this glaze firstly over the scored fat, and then over the surface of the ham.

If you want to finish the ham straight away, preheat your oven to 240 degrees. Place the ham on a foil lined baking tray and roast in this hot oven for about 30 minutes, or enough for the glaze to turn a nice deep colour.
Starts to colour very quickly-

You may need to baste the ham in the glaze a few times if you want the stickiest of skins *which you do*.  You will probably need to watch the ham to ensure the glaze does not burn during this time.

And here it is finished-

When this process has finished, take the ham out to cool, and serve warm with salad.  This ham keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days easily, or can even be frozen in chunks. Wrap tightly in foil then place in airtight container in either case.

Enjoy!