METHOD

There is nothing we love better than a golden, succulent warm ham on the bone on the Christmas table (or the 21st table, or the wedding table, or just the table – we love them that much!). Here are our tips on how to get there:

1. Buy the best quality 3-5kg bone-in ham that you can find and free range is definitely best here if you can manage it. We recommend you allow at least 200-250gms of ham (on the bone) per person for a generous serve (Serves 15-25).

2. Carefully remove the skin, leaving the fat layer underneath intact. Score the fat layer of your ham with 2cm diagonal cuts to form diamond shapes all over the ham. Try to avoid cutting through to the meat layer. Dot the intersecting cut lines with whole cloves.

3. Choose a glaze. To make it easy (and utterly delicious) grab a pouch of our Clementine Glaze which is also great for chicken, duck, barbeque meats and ham steaks or use your favourite glaze.

4. Set the oven to 160C with your oven rack low enough to allow for the large ham to sit on top.

5. Sit your ham into a generously sized roasting tray (lined with baking parchment or foil if you hate cleaning up sticky trays).

6. Pour over the glaze and put your ham into the oven. Baste by brushing with excess glaze every 10 minutes or so.

7. After about 45-50 minutes, the ham should be coloured and gorgeous - leave in longer if it is not and keep basting till it is. Remove the ham from the oven and transfer to your serving platter.

8. Pour any remaining glaze and juices from your roasting pan into a small saucepan, add a good slug of orange juice and reduce over a medium heat until you have a heavy syrup. Be careful here - you don’t want to turn it to toffee. Once thick, pour this over the ham to coat and further glaze - again, be careful, this caramelized syrup has big burn potential!

9. Decorate the bone end of your ham with herbs and ribbons to complete your ‘visual symphony’!