How to Glaze A Christmas Ham

Ham is as synonymous to Christmas as a fat man in a red suit. 

For us, as butchers, it's our biggest time of year. Food is a big part of our culture and nothing feels more like Christmas that butchering, netting and smoking ham.

 

The pork and farm

Every Hagen’s Organics ham is made in small batches, by hand in Richmond. The pork is an old-breed called Berkshire, prized for their superior flavour. The pigs are raised ethically by a local farming family at McIvor Farm Foods located in Tooborac, Victoria. The pork is beyond free-range, spending their entire lives outside in a regenerative eco-system and are raised without synthetic pesticides, herbicides or antibiotics in their feed.  

The Hagen’s Hams are double smoked to ensure a delicious flavour is imparted into the meat. We use sustainably sourced Victorian Red-Gum wood chips that are the envy of the world when it comes to smoke, it burns clean with minimal ash and great flavour very similar to hickory.  

 

When ordering your ham

When ordering your ham ask yourself - how many people are you trying to feed, and, do you want leftovers for toasties and cold cuts over the days after Christmas (while you watch the Boxing Day Test). 

 

Baking your ham

 

Each jar of Hagen’s Organics Persian Ham Glaze is made in-house. The recipe includes: apricot jam, preserved lemon and rasalhanut

 

Ingredients: 

1 x Hagen’s Ham (whole ham on the bone)

1 x Jar of Hagen’s Persian Ham Glaze

½ a packet of Cloves (around 100 for a whole ham) 

 

Method:  

STEP 1 – REMOVE RIND 

 

Pre-heat oven to 200℃ (fan forced) 

Place ham skin-side up on a chopping board. Run a small, sharp knife under the rind and around the bottom (opposite end to hock). Pull the knife through the skin on the side, moving from the bottom just before you reach the hock. Note, the knife should pull through the skin relatively easily, if there is resistance you may be cutting too deep and into the flesh.  

Run the knife around the area where the hock meets the flesh and cut around the circumference of the hock. You’ll then be able to pull the remaining skin off, leaving only the skin on the hock for presentation.  

  

STEP 2 – SCORE SKIN  

Lightly score the white fat in a criss-cross pattern from the bottom to the hock. In the place where the diamonds meet, insert a clove, repeat for the total cover of the top of white fat.  

 

 
STEP 3 - GLAZE 

Place the ham in a large baking dish and using a pastry brush cover the top of the ham in the Persian Glaze. Place in a hot oven and bake for around 20 minutes or until the ham begins to colour. After 20 minutes apply a second coat of the glaze, then return to the oven and continue to bake until browned all over.  

*Remember that the ham is already cooked during the smoking process and only requires to be cooked until the glaze on top is golden. Excess cooking in the oven will dry out the ham.  

Serve warm then place leftovers in the fridge, wrapped in your ham bag and enjoy over Christmas!