Delicious sticky glazed ham

Ingredients

Half a leg of ham
Approximately ¼ cup whole cloves

1½ cups water
½ cups brown sugar
¼cup liquid honey or maple syrup
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
½ cup brandy rum or pineapple juice

Prep time: 20min

Cooking time: 1.5hrs

Serves: 14

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 175°C
Take a small sharp knife and cut a zig-zag shape into the skin at the base of the ham hock – this is the point to which you will pull back the skin. Using the small knife, loosen the skin away from the white fat along the cut edge. You want to keep the white fat on the ham, as this keeps the ham moist and very tasty! Loosen the skin by slipping your fingertips underneath, then pull the skin away back to the zig zag at the base of hock.
Use a knife to score the white fat diagonally at about 2cm intervals. Push a whole clove into the criss-cross or centre of each diamond.
Wrap tinfoil around the end of the hock to stop it burning. If you have the chump end (no hock), then you don’t need to do this step. Place the ham in a roasting dish, add water to the base of the dish and place it in the hot oven for 20 minutes. The water in the base of the dish helps prevent it from drying out.
In the meantime, make the glaze. Place brown sugar, honey or maple syrup and mustard into a saucepan and stir for a few minutes, over a low heat, until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in brandy, rum or pineapple juice.
After the ham has cooked for 20 minutes remove it from the oven and brush well with the glaze. Return it to the oven for another 20 minutes. Re-glaze and remove the foil from the hock, then bake for another 20 minutes. You may need to add a little extra water to the dish towards the end of cooking if it has completely evaporated. Re-glaze and cook for a final 20- 30 minutes. The ham should be caramelised and golden.
Once ham is cooked, remove it from oven, cover with foil and set aside to rest for about 15 minutes or until ready serve. Collect the ham juices and glaze from the base of the roasting dish and give the ham one final glaze just before serving.
To serve, transfer the ham onto a chopping board or large platter and slice thinly. Serve any remaining juices and glaze in a jug on the side to drizzle over the ham if desired.

Chef’s notes:

You need to re-glaze your ham several times throughout the cooking process to make sure it becomes nice and caramelised on top. This is a basic glazed ham recipe, but feel free to jazz it up with other flavours. You can secure pineapple rings on the ham with toothpicks before glazing or use marmalade in place of the honey or maple syrup. Make sure you allow the ham to rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving to make sure all the juiciness is retained in the meat