Tue, 17 March 2026
(Serves 6-8)
A delicious accompaniment to your St. Patrick’s Day feast. I simply adore bacon either hot or cold and leftovers of this recipe are great to use for a delicious sandwich or why not just make this gazed bacon and serve it hold for home christenings or confirmations.
Ingredients:
1 loin of bacon (approx 2kg)
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
2oz/50g brown sugar
6 dessertspoons of honey
12-15 cloves
Method:
1. Place the bacon in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 ½ hours until completely tender.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
3. Remove the bacon from the water and allow to cool for 15 or 20 minutes.
4. Transfer the meat to a baking dish or roasting tray.
5. With a sharp knife make some incisions in the fat of the bacon in a criss-cross pattern-This will give a nice professional finish to the dish later on.
6. Stud the cloves into the ham in a relatively uniform pattern.
7. Mix together the honey and mustard and spread this over the clove studded loin of bacon and then sprinkle the sugar on top and transfer to the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the bacon has achieved a nice crunch crust.
8. Serve with some mashed potatoes or potato cakes and then creamy parsley sauce.
Parsley Sauce:
2oz/50g butter
2oz/50g flour
1 pint/600ml milk
2 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
½ glass white wine
Seasoning
Put the milk in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Melt the butter slowly in another small saucepan.
Add in the flour and mix until combined.
Cook this mixture on a low heat for two minutes to take the taste of the flour away.
Gradually whisk in the boiling milk and white wine and continue to stir, especially around the edges, until it comes to the boil again and then turn the heat right down and cook on a low heat for 10-15 minutes.
Additional Notes:
• With regard to the parsley sauce if you would like it a little thinner you can whisk in some additional hot milk/water/stock.
• It freezes quite well and it can be flavored with lots of different items like herbs, cheese, mushrooms, wholegrain mustard etc.
