Can I Make A Large Slow-Cooked Black Treacle Ham?

Our answer

Nigella's Slow-Cooked Black Treacle Ham (from SIMPLY NIGELLA) cooks a 3½ kg (7½ pounds) boneless gammon in a low oven for 12-24 hours. The gammon is given a short blast of high heat initially, to kick start the cooking process, and a short blast at the end of the cooking time to glaze the scored fat on the surface of the ham.

An 8kg gammon is very large and we suspect it may be a bone-in joint. This can affect the cooking time as the bone will conduct heat to the centre of the ham, so it is more difficult to extrapolate a cooking time from the boneless ham cooking time. However, we suspect that if you let the gammon stand at room temperature for 2 hours before putting it into the oven then it should not take longer than 24 hours to cook. But to avoid the ham becoming over- or under- cooked, we strongly suggest using an instant read or probe thermometer to monitor the internal temperature. Slow cook the ham until it reaches an internal temperature of 70c (158F) then remove it from the oven, remove the thermometer and the skin, score and glaze the fat and cook in the hot oven as described in the recipe. During this time the internal temperature will rise a little more. When you insert the thermometer put it into the centre of the thickest part of the meat. Make sure it isn't in contact with any bone, as this will affect the reading. If the ham has cooked too quickly, it can stand in the turned off oven for up to 2 hours before you proceed with the glazing steps. If it is cooking too slowly then you can increase the oven temperature to 180c (350F) for the last 1-2 hours to speed up the cooking. However, please note that as we have not tried cooking a ham of this size, we can't guarantee the cooking times.