Maryanne Dalton’s Traditional Baked Ham.
It’s very popular to boil hams and then glaze in the oven afterwards, but to me a Christmas ham is only baked without bubbling away in a ham pot beforehand. Itsd well worth becoming familiar with baking a ham rather than boiling one as the flavour will reward your effort ten-fold!
Depending on how the ham was cured, it will most probably be necessary to soak the ham for 24 hours before baking it. This step isn’t necessary when boiling a ham as the boiling process automatically removes any excess salt, but it is a foolish errand to bake a salt cured ham without soaking.. It may sound complicated, but all you need to do is immerse the ham in cold water, ensuring that it’s all sitting below the water level. I use a baby bath, but my memories growing up were hams sitting in water-filled, double-bagged bin bags in the family bath at home tied at the top!
Depending on the curing methods, some hams may not require soaking at all, so check with your butcher to see what soaking is recommended, ensuring you let them know that you plan on baking the ham rather than boiling. Once the ham is soaked, the rest is even more straightforward than boiling, so even if you’re a novice cook, this is a technique you can master very easily.