black garlic & honey glazed christmas ham

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Give your traditional Christmas ham a little extra love this year with this amazing black garlic glaze. It’s sticky, sweet and the classic umami notes from the black garlic compliment the ham beautifully. Once cooked, you can use the remaining glaze and the juices collected at the bottom of the tray to make a black garlic sauce to serve with your ham. A classic dish that will have everyone going back for more.

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 1 1/2 hours

Servings: 10-12

Ingredients

  • 4-5kg pre-cooked/smoked ham

  • 20 cloves

  • 50g Flinders Black Garlic (mashed into a paste; use a small blender or mortar and pestle)

  • 100g runny honey

  • 50ml water

  • 75ml brandy or sherry

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 170C. Prepare a large baking dish with a dripping tray. Place an oven shelf in the lowest position. Remove all other shelves.

  • Combine the black garlic, honey, water and brandy into a small blender and blend until most of the lumps have disappeared. If you don’t have a small blender, vigorously whisk all the ingredients together until smooth.

  • Use a sharp knife to cut under the rind around edge of ham. Gently lift the rind off in 1 piece by carefully running your fingers between the rind and the fat.

  • Score the fat in a diamond pattern, about 3-5mm deep. Stud the centres of the diamonds with cloves. Transfer to prepared dish.

  • Brush one-third of the glaze over the ham. Bake, brushing with glaze every 25 minutes, for 1 hour 30 minutes.

  • After the first 50 minutes, pause the timer and remove the ham from the oven. Remove the cloves from your meat and place half of them on the dripping tray and discard the others. Add another round of glaze over the exposed fat on your meat in a thick layer. Some of it will run down and can be used to prepare a sauce for the glazed ham.

  • When the baking time is up, using a meat thermometer, check the internal temperature of your meat (it is cooked when it shows 60C). If you’re happy with it, remove the pan from the oven, place the ham onto a carving board and allow to cool for 15 min before carving.

To make Black Garlic Sauce with the leftover glaze

  • Pour any remaining glaze into a small saucepan.

  • Add a little boiling water into the pan with drippings and, using a brush, loosen any stuck on bits. Transfer this liquid into the saucepan and bring to simmer. Serve with your ham.