I realise that people have been cooking hams in coke for many years, but no matter how much positive feedback people were giving, I still always felt it a bit gimmicky. Catching up with some of the decent food blogs out there, I found this recipe over at the excellent Helen Graves’ Food Stories, blog, and thought I couldn’t put it off any longer.

It was definitely one of the better ways of cooking ham and although my deep-fried pickles didn’t work out quite as well as I’d hoped (not to mention the fact that several of them tried to attack me, leaping out from the hot oil), the ham was great (I took half of the ham into work for people to try and it was all gone in about 30 mins).

Coca-Cola Ham

1x 2.5kg unsmoked ham/gammon joint

1x2l bottle coca-cola

1 onion, peeled and halved

Couple bay  leaves

Few peppercorns

Glaze

6 tbs molasses (or muscovado sugar with a knob of butter)

2 tbs Jack Daniels

1 tbs English mustard powder

Loads of cloves

Get a pan which fits the ham in, it will need to be big if you have a 2.5kg ham, then add the coke and onion, bay leaves and peppercorns. Cook on a low heat for about 4 hours. If you have a pressure cook, then cook for 2, with an hour under pressure.

Remove the ham, remembering to keep the stock for future use (excellent for chillis or bean stews) and allow to cool for a bit. Take any skin off that remains, trying to leave a good layer of fat. Score the fat on the ham into diamonds, before putting a clove into each intersection (if you have a small child that needs occupying, then this is a good task or use for them).

Warm up the molasses or sugar/butter combo in a pan, adding the JD and mustard powder, until you have a nice syrupy consistency. Spread over the ham, before placing in the oven at 200C for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and either eat straight away or allow to cool before slicing. I’ll leave the deep fried pickles out this time, but the recipe is with Helen’s recipe at the link above if you want to try them.

I had the ham in sandwiches for the rest of the week, finding that butter brioche rolls worked very well, along with a good dollop of mustard.