cola-glazed ham

method

Remove the outer packaging and place the meat in a large pan. Pour over the cola and add the onions and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 2½ hours (allow 30 minutes per 500g, plus 30 minutes).

Preheat the oven to gas mark 7/220°C/fan oven 200°C. Line a roasting tin with foil. Remove the ham from the pan and place in the tin. Some hams have a cookproof plastic strip around the meat; if yours has this, remove it now, then remove the dark layer of rind. Score the fat into a diamond pattern and press a clove into each diamond. Warm the treacle in a small pan and drizzle over the ham. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the top is golden. Remove from the oven, cover with foil and leave to rest for at least 10 minutes.

Alternatively:For an orange and honey ham, replace cola with water and the onion and bay leaves with the rind of one orange and one lemon, two star anise and 10 peppercorns. Instead of treacle, glaze with the same amount of honey, drizzled over slices of fresh orange (from two fruit) that have been arranged over the ham after removing the dark rind.

nutritional values (approx. per serving)

calories	fat	sat fat	sugars	salt
390	15g	5g	28.5g	4.5g