Tue, 23 December 2025
There are so many stories from every family about the tales of the Christmas ham and all too often half of the ham is gone before Christmas day even arrives! I love the ham cold on Christmas night with a turkey and stuffing sandwich. The flavour of the cooking liquor really adds a great flavour to the ham in this recipe in that it allows the entire ham to take on the sweetness of the cola right throughout the cooking process.
Ingredients
6.6lb/3kg unsmoked ham
2 sticks celery
2 red chillies-chopped roughly
8-10 black peppercorns
1 medium sized onion
2 litres coca cola
Glaze:
24 whole cloves-approximately
2oz/50g demerara sugar
2 tablespoons honey/maple syrup
Method:
Place the ham into a large saucepan with the celery, red chillies, black peppercorns and the diced onion and then pour in the coca cola, ensuring that the ham is completely covered with coke.
Place the saucepan on the heat and bring to the boil. Once the mixture has come to the boil reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and continue cooking for approximately 2 hours. At this stage turn off the heat, allow the ham to cool slightly and then carefully remove from the water and allow to cool completely, preferably overnight, in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4
Next day arrange the ham onto a deep roasting tin, lined with parchment paper and using a sharp knife, score the fat of the ham in a criss cross pattern. Neatly stud the ham with the whole cloves and then drizzle with the honey or maple syrup. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar and transfer to the preheated oven and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes until a nice, caramelised sugar crust has
formed on top of the ham. Remove the ham from the oven, allow to rest for 5-10 minutes and then carve.
