Christmas ham with mustard-apple crumble

The best Christmas ham is cooked at a low temperature of 100 degrees Celsius. If you buy a big enough ham, there’s no need to yöllä heräillä the oven.

Ingredients for several hams

1 ham of the desired size and style
(e.g. a 5-6 kg freshly cured organic ham with pot and skin).

Mustard glaze
4 tbsp apple jam
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 dl breadcrumbs

For the garnish
1 handful of cloves

Preparing the Christmas ham for baking

Put the frozen ham in the fridge to defrost for two or three minutes before baking. Thaw the ham in the cupboard for two or three hours before baking. It should be at least ten degrees before you start cooking the meat. Of course, the time depends on the size of the ham.

Wash the ham and dry the surface. If the ham has a net, it is advisable to leave it in place. It is advisable to prefer a leather model, which not only keeps the ham in shape, but also helps to make a juicy Christmas ham. It’s a good idea to cut a few long slits in the leather to prevent it from bunching up in the oven.

Bagging is not a problem, but with a leather ham it is not necessary. The meat stays juicy under the skin. If you don’t have a roasting bag, place the ham in a baking dish with a rack on the bottom. Place a glass of water in the bottom of the pan, it will keep the oven moist enough. Organic ham is much more liquid than normal, so this is something to consider when choosing a dish, otherwise you’ll still have to wash the oven on Christmas Eve!

Place a roasting tester in the thickest part of the meat, being careful not to overheat the bone as it will cook at a different time to the meat itself. If the gauge reaches ten degrees or more, you can start frying the ham.

Fry the ham at 100 degrees

No more than that! That’s the secret to keeping the ham juicy.The baking time is 1.5 hours for the first kilo and an hour for the ones over that. So a five kilo ham will take 5.5 to 6 hours. This means that you can put it in the oven on the morning of the 24th, if you eat it in the evening.

Hot Christmas ham has a 72 degree internal temperature

If you want an overcooked and crumbly ham, let it go to 82 degrees.

Let the ham rest, wrapped in foil and newspaper, for at least half an hour after baking. Cut off the net or skin. Spread a half-inch layer of fat on the surface of the ham – someone will add more. However, it’s not worth removing all the fat from the ham, as it will keep it juicy for years to come.

Christmas Ham Frosting

Return the oven to 225 degrees Celsius. Stir the frosting into a paste in a cup. Spread the icing over the surface of the ham in an even layer. Cut cross sections (squares) with the blunt side of a knife for decoration and place a clove in each square.Bake the ham in the hot oven for another 15 minutes so the icing hardens on the surface of the ham. If your ham has a bone in it, fold a piece of foil around it to decorate it before taking it to the oven.
Happy Christmas!

Ham vocabulary

Ham roll =dream at least at Christmas. A ham roll is an object made of pieces of meat glued together, injected into water and held together by stabilisers.

Deeply salted =Deeply salted Christmas ham, i.e. it is not frozen at any stage.

Gray salted =This ham has no nitrite in the salt and therefore the meat turns slightly grey. Can be frozen or freshly salted.

Red-salted=The salt contains nitrite, so it makes the ham reddish to pink. Can be frozen or freshly salted. Too much nitrite can have health effects.

Grain-poached Christmas ham The poached ham is made from 80% grain.

Christmas ham =a whole Christmas ham, usually with a bone in.

Bacon =Pork cooked with organic meat, according to Nimes. Usually freshly salted. No curing agents or additives are used in the salting of organic ham. Organic ham costs a lot more, but hey, Christmas comes once a year!

This is organic from Pro Luomu on Vimeo.