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Maple-glazed ham shanks studded with cloves with a sweet mustard sauce
Serves 6 (Start 1 day before serving) Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 2 x 1.3kg gammon knuckles (ham hock) with skin
- 2 onions, unpeeled, washed and cut into quarters
- 2 carrots, scrubbed and roughly chopped
- 2 fat celery sticks, roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled and bruised
- rosemary branch
- 4 bay leaves
- 4 thyme sprigs
- ½tsp black peppercorns
- 6 cloves
For the maple syrup glaze
- 200g soft brown sugar
- 90ml pure maple syrup
- 2tsp dry English mustard
- 4tbsp cider vinegar
- 20-30 whole cloves
For the sweet mustard sauce
- 125ml double cream
- 1tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1tbsp wholegrain mustard
- 2tsp maple syrup
Method
The day before, put the knuckles in a large pan with the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, herbs, peppercorns and cloves. Add enough cold water to cover the meat and place over a medium heat until it begins to boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 2-3 hours with the lid half on. Use a skewer to check it’s cooked, then remove from the heat, cover completely and leave to cool in the water overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 180C/160C F/Gas 4. Remove the knuckles from the water (discard the veg, herbs etc but keep the stock to use in soups or casseroles). Carefully ease just the skin from the knuckles, leaving a good layer of fat intact.
Put the knuckles in a large shallow roasting tin, cover with foil and heat in the oven for around 15 minutes, then remove but keep the oven on.
Meanwhile, make the glaze: put the sugar in a bowl, add the maple syrup, mustard and vinegar and mix well.
Score the surface of the fat with a sharp knife in a criss-cross diamond pattern. Stud the centre of each diamond with a clove. Baste the knuckles with about a third of the glaze and bake, uncovered, for a further 20 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 190C/170C F/Gas 5 and cook for a further 30 minutes, basting regularly with more glaze until it is all used up.
To make the sweet mustard sauce, put the cream in a small pan and gently simmer for a few minutes before adding the remaining ingredients. Stir and transfer to a jug.
Calve the ham and serve with the sauce.
This recipe was taken from the Christmas 2021 issue of Food and Travel. To subscribe, click here.
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