Black Pig Ham with Verjuice Apricots
A beautiful marriage of flavours, Verjuice and apricots bring a touch of something special.
Ingredients
1 x Black Pig ham 4-5kg
12 x cloves
1 x Jar of Verjuice Apricots (from Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop)
Or make your own with;
150 gms dried apricots
100ml verjuice
100gm sugar
1/2 stick of cinnamon
4 x cloves
Method for Verjuice Apricots
To make your own Verjuice apricots make sugar syrup with the verjuice and sugar – gently poach the apricots for 5 – 10 minutes until soft but still retaining their shape. Let cool.
Method for Ham
Cut a circle around the Hock at the base of the ham and gently start easing the skin off. Be very careful as you want to keep as much fat on as possible.
Once the ham is skinned, pre heat a fan forced oven to 200 degrees.
Score the ham (cut the fat into a criss cross pattern by carving lines first moving left to right, then turn the ham and go right to left – try not to go down to the skin – you only want to score the fat)
Bake the ham for approximately 30 – 40 minutes depending on the size. The skin should caramelise and be a lovely brown colour.
Let the ham rest for 40 minutes to and hour.
Before carving, scoop the verjuice apricots over the ham and stud some cloves into the skin for presentation. The apricots provide a beautiful accompaniment to the ham.
Carve at the table and Enjoy!.
