Glazed Baked Ham California with Parsley Sauce

Posted on 5th July 2019

A whole ham on the bone, glazed with an almost-black crust of sugar and mustard, will always be one of the most alluring and impressive things you can put on the table. It deserves very special accompaniments, including something sweet to cut the saltiness of the ham, and a real parsley sauce, creamy and soothing, to mollify the whole combination into the ultimate comfort food.

Gammon and pineapple isn’t just a bad culinary joke, as was proved to me when I had lunch at the Connaught and ordered the daily special – an enormous baked leg of ham with a burnt sugary crust, served with slices of hot, spiced fresh pineapple. Even the pineapple had been caramelised with a last-minute sprinkling of sugar – and a blowtorch, I suspect.

It was wonderful, and prompted me to devise this alternative to the spiced figs accompaniment I offer in The River Cottage Cookbook. My version forsakes the blowtorch (though by all means have a go if you ‘re an enthusiast of that kitchen implement), gently infusing the pineapple in a spicy syrup, which, as with the figs, becomes a piquant sauce for the ham.

  • Put the ham to soak in a large bucket of cold water 24-48 hours before cooking (depending on the size of the ham and the length of the original cure – i.e. saltiness). Change the water every 12 hours.
  • Rinse the soaked ham and place it in a large stockpot. Cover with fresh cold water and add the vegetables and peppercorns, plus the herbs, tied in a bouquet.
  • Bring the water to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover partially with a lid and simmer very gently for 4-5 hours. If after an hour of simmering the water tastes unpalatably salty, discard it and replace with fresh boiling water – this will help to reduce the saltiness of the cooked ham.
  • Remove the ham from the pot and allow it to cool slightly. Meanwhile, for the glaze, place the mustard and sugar in a small bowl and mix to make a thick, sludgy paste.
  • Carefully peel away the skin of the ham, leaving a smooth, even layer of fat over the meat. Place the ham in a large roasting tin, then score the fat layer with the point of a sharp knife in a coarse diamond pattern, but not so deeply as to go right through the fat to the meat. Spread the glaze mixture all over it in an even layer. Stud the ham with the cloves at regularly spaced intervals.
  • Roast the ham in a moderate oven (180 C/Gas Mark 4) for 1-1.5 hours, until the glaze becomes a dark, golden-brown bubbling crust.
  • While the ham is baking, you can sort out the pineapple and make the parsley sauce. Peel the pineapple, nicking out any persistent spiky bits on the flesh with the point of a sharp knife. Slice the pineapple into rounds 1cm thick. Using a small, sharp pastry cutter or the point of a sharp knife, stamp out the tough core of each slice, leaving you with classic pineapple rings. Save as much of the juice as you can.
  • Put the saved pineapple juice in a pan with the orange juice, a couple of tablespoons of water, plus the sugar and spices and stir over a gentle heat to dissolve the sugar. Simmer gently for a few minutes to make a light syrup, then remove from the heat and add the pineapple rings, turning them to coat in the syrup. Leave to cool and infuse.
  • Before you serve the ham, remove the pineapple rings from the pan and strain the syrup, discarding the spices. Return the pineapple and clean syrup to the pan and heat through. You can also add the strained juices from the roasting tin at this stage, but strain off the fat first and make sure they are not too salty or burnt tasting. If in doubt, leave them out.
  • Carve the ham while piping hot from the oven and serve on hot plates with 1 or 2 pineapple slices, a spoonful of their syrup on the meat and a generous pool of parsley sauce on the side. There won’t be much room on the plate for it, but since this meal should be a feast in the best sense, have also on the table a large dish of creamy mashed potatoes, some lightly steamed cabbage tossed in butter and sprinkled with a few caraway seeds, and, if you’re really going for it, some Glazed Carrots.

Serves 10 – 30

4.5 – 9kg ham, ideally on the bone
1 large onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
10 black peppercorns
3-4 bay leaves
5-6 sprigs of thyme
A small bunch of parsley stalks

Real Parsley Sauce to serve

THE GLAZE
1 generous tablespoon English mustard
250g soft brown sugar
15-20 cloves

THE SPICED PINEAPPLE
1 large, fresh pineapple, ripe and fragrant. (or buy chilled fresh pineapple rings, but not tinned)
Juice of 1 orange
50-100g light soft brown sugar
6 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 blade of mace (if handy)