Hot Toddy Ham | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Hot Toddy Ham

COOK TIME: 30hrs 20 minutes
DIFFICULTY: Easy
SERVES: 10

Ingredients

1 x 3kg Smoked Gammon

For the Syrup

100ml Whisky (Nothing peaty, go for something fruity and spicy, I used Aberlour), 60g Dark Brown Unrefined Cane Sugar, and 1 Tablespoon Runny Honey
Juice of 1 Orange and 1 Lemon, 1 Cinnamon Stick and 2 Large Blades Mace, Zest of 1 Orange and 1 Lemon, and 10 Whole Cloves, 1 Whole Piece Stem Ginger, and 2 Tablespoons Stem Ginger Syrup

For the Glaze

35ml Whisky, and 100g Dark Brown Unrefined Cane Sugar
3 Tablespoons Runny Honey, and 1 Tablespoon Stem Ginger Syrup
Finely Grated Zest of 1 Lemon and 1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon, and Whole Cloves to Decorate (Optional)

Equipment

Method

Hazel Paterson from It’s Not F***ing Rocket Science has provided us with another recipe to whet your appetite. Visit her site or follow her on Twitter @HazelPaterson to keep up with her latest goings on.

There are two things that make me feel ready to embrace Christmas each year: those adverts with the slowed down songs designed to make you cry all the way to their large department stores and the appearance of large smoked gammons in the shops.

This hot toddy ham incorporates all of the flavours and scents of winter.

The best bit is that you can make the ham well in advance in its vac pac bag, freeze it and then defrost and glaze it whenever you need it.

Your only limits size-wise with this recipe is the size of your water bath and bags.

The water bath does all the hard work and leaves you with an intensely flavoured ham that holds its shape when sliced and looks impressive to boot.

This recipe is for a 3kg ham which fits snugly in to my 250mm x 350mm bags.

But I have cooked a 5kg one by taking it along with the frozen flavour syrup to my friendly butcher and he has used his industrial sized vac pac machine…

Always make friends with your butcher!

I have also used this same recipe for a 1kg ham and 2.3kg ham, all the timings the same and all have been perfect so it’s completely stress free.

METHOD

Soak the gammon for 12 hours in cold water, changing it at least twice in order to remove some of the salt.
Whilst the gammon is soaking make your syrup base. Combine the whisky, dark brown sugar, runny honey, orange and lemon juice in a small saucepan and heat gently whilst stirring to dissolve the sugar. Just as it starts to steam, remove from the heat and pour into your large vac bag. Fold it to seal and secure it to prevent leaks (I use clothes pegs). Place in the freezer overnight so that the liquid isn’t sucked into your vacuum sealer.
Heat your water bath to 60C. Add the remaining syrup ingredients to the frozen syrup bag. Remove the gammon from the water and add to the bag and vacuum seal. Place in the water bath for 18 hours.
After 18 hours you can either freeze the ham to finish another day or continue with the recipe.
Drain the liquid from the bag and taste it; if it tastes salty just discard it but if not you can reduce it right down and add it to the glaze. Whilst the ham is still hot, place it on a roasting tray lined with tin foil and slowly pour over the whisky.
Heat your oven to 230C. Use a sharp knife to carefully slice off the skin, leaving the thick layer of fat, then carefully slice through the fat in diagonal strokes to create a diamond pattern. Pierce the centre of each diamond with a clove.
Stir the remaining glaze ingredients together in a small bowl. You can loosen the mix with either more whisky or some of the reduced cooking liquor, then pour it all over the ham.
Roast in a hot oven for about 20 minutes or until the fat starts to colour and the glaze caramelises.
Remove from the oven and serve either hot or cold; I like to pour a bit more whisky over it just prior to serving.

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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