From time to time we have been known to partake of the occasional slice or two of hamm purchased from the local butcher. A butcher who is highly recommended, it has to be said. My wife got chatting to someone in the shop last weekend who had driven forty- or fifty-odd miles from Bristol just to buy lots of meat to put in her freezer. Not entirely environmentally sensitive, but quite a statement about the quality of the shop’s produce.
Every Christmas my wife makes a “Boxing Day Ham”, cooked for hours in pan of all sorts of ingredients that include my home-made beer. There may even be some water involved. It may originally have been a Jamie Oliver recipe, or perhaps Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. It is absolutely delicious however. I got to thinking that we could make such a ham more regularly and feed it through our meat slicer. What we don’t want to eat immediately goes into the freezer.
After testing the idea and working out the cost (weighing the meat once cooled after cooking) we decided that it costs less then 10% more than buying ready-sliced ham, but tastes outstanding. I’ve never had sliced ham that tastes so good before. Cooking a new ham is now a regular event every two to three months and it’s lovely with home-smoked cheese in ‘cheesenam’ toasties.