How To Make Gammon in Apple Cider for Thanksgiving or Christmas

To boil the gammon you'll need -

Stock or soup pan - capacity 5 litres

2.6 kg boneless gammon joint

4 litres of apple cider

2 bay leaves

1 tbsp of coriander seeds

2 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 small onion

For the Gammon rub you'll need -

2 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp chinese five spice

olive oil

It’s the eternal question? Do we have Turkey for Thanksgiving/Christmas or something else? Some folks, my Dad for instance, would never let us hear the end of it if we served anything other than Turkey on Christmas Day.

A fictional conversation now takes place…

“Do you remember when you served that other thing on Christmas Day, Chel?”

“What OTHER THING, Dad?”

“You know, the thing that wasn’t Turkey”

“Goose?”

“Is that what it was??? I had the shock of my life. Never before had I had a Christmas without a Turkey and to be honest Chel, it troubled me a little”

“There, there, you’re talking in your sleep again. Toddle off back to the armchair like a good Dada and I’ll get your tartan blanket. Is that dribble?”

Others are not as bothered. They’ll try Duck, Goose, Ham or Beef. So the recipe I’m featuring here today is either an alternative to Turkey or a dish that you can serve on another day such as Boxing Day or New Years Day. It’s still festive, still allows you to carve at the table and is still tasty and mightily filling.

This sized joint will certainly feed eight adults. You will find a weight conversion chart here if needed

Place your joint in to a snugly fitting pan

Pour two litres of Cider in to the pan

Then add the rest of the simmering ingredients
Bring the pan to the boil
Lower the heat and allow to simmer with the lid on for 2 hours
Turn the joint upside down after one hour
Keep cider topped up during this process keeping as much of the joint immersed in water as possible

After 2 hours simmering, with the lid on, remove the joint from the pan and place on to a chopping board or suitable surface
Remove the string if it has any
Taking a sharp knife slice off the layer of fat
Discard both the fat and the cooking liquid

Score the top of the joint diagonally making pretty diamond shapes that remind you of Kanye West’s sweaters
Drizzle olive oil over it and rub this in to the joint
In a pestle and mortar grind up the rub ingredients (see red ingredients box) and smear them all over the top and ends of the joint
Place the joint in the oven for twenty minutes at 200c

Serve with roasted veg….

Mashed potato with heaps of black pepper…

..and a table adorned with berries, lights, candles, wine and those you love ….don’t put actual people on the table as humans are not commonly used as table decoration.

I placed a cosy blanket on the back of each chair to try and induce a sense of being in a ski lodge. Don’t ask me why but these little touches are the things that guests LOVE. The blankets are all inexpensive fleecy numbers and make hard backed chairs a darn site more comfortable.

I can’t explain the ski lodge thing further I’m afraid except for the fact that my Mum and I were having a convo yesterday while watching Deck the Halls on Sky Movies. We were saying how much we’d love to spend Christmas at the Ahwahnee and dreaming of how lovely it would be. Here’s my mini version of what I think it would be like. And all I had to do was pop to Ikea for some blankets!

Yay!

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