Hams should have a traditional flavour and stand alone without glazing. However, I like to glaze mine for appearances, as well as adding to the flavour. I tried various recipes over the years until my friend Jan Heshall let me in on her secret recipe. Having worked for the Pork Board, Jan knows a thing or two about pigs and her glazed hams are legendary.
1 Gently remove the skin from the ham and discard, leaving the layer of fat still covering the meat.
2 Criss-cross the fat layer with a knife, stud with cloves and put into a foil-lined baking tray.
3 In a blender mix ¾ cup of apricot jam, 1 cup of brown sugar and 2 cups of orange juice.
4 Pour this over the ham and put it into a medium oven.
5 Allow the ham to start colouring and then spoon the glaze over the ham every 15 minutes or so until you have a lovely shiny coating.
6 Remove from the oven and decorate, serve hot or allow to cool and serve cold.
Whether you are serving your glazed ham hot or cold make a bit of a fuss about it. Dress it up with a bunch of herbs and flowers from the garden, tied with a ribbon. Secure this to the ham with toothpicks or satay sticks. I used rosemary, geranium and nasturtium. Use what you like, but beware of putting anything toxic in the bunch. The best rule of thumb is to only put on a plate what you can eat.
