Feeling slightly smug here - if you don’t do smug - look away now!
I bought quite a large Gammon Joint from our local butcher - put it in a pan of water with one onion and a couple of bay leaves. Put it on the slow burner and ignored it for most of the day.
When cooked - lifted it out onto a serving dish - allowed it to cool. Kept the cooking water. Kept the onion and bay leaves to one side.
Cut the skin off - and gave it to my next door neighbour - she will brush it with a little honey and roast it - her hubby likes crispy crackling!
Cut off all the fat and put it to one side.
Sliced the meat - kept some out for a meal tomorrow - vacuum packed the rest in portions and put in the freezer. Kept all the little bitty bits that fell off while carving - there were quite a lot!.
When the cooking water was quite cold - strained it through a sieve into my trusty cauldron - put to simmer. (What was left in the sieve was added to the fat I put aside earlier.)
Emptied a large bag of frozen peas into the water - added the onion, bay leaves, one medium potato and a few cloves of garlic, lots of black pepper, and two veg oxo cubes - simmered until potato was cooked - blitzed it a blender until quite smooth - returned to cauldron - added in the little bits of gammon. Pea and Ham soup!
What about the fat? Well - added some dried fruit, a little cereal and some mixed seeds and made fat balls for the birds!
Absolutely no waste - happy neighbours, happy birds, happy and well fed me!
ST, Ooh, that has made me feel hungry! l find that gammon joint, like a chicken, or turkey are very versatile meats. There’s so much you can do with them.
As well as gammon dinners, salads, l use chopped up gammon to make quiches, adding finely chopped onion, cheese and sliced tomatoes on the top!!
I prefer Gammon to Pork - and certainly have my moneysworth out of that piece! Four rather large portions of Pea/Ham soup, a substantial amount for tonight’s dinner, and enough in the freezer to make four more meals or, as you say, to make quiches etc.,
I I cook the joint with carrots, swede, and onions. For the last 20 mins I put the spuds in. My first meal is always the gammon with the veg from the pan with parsley sauce… The liquid with remaining veg is turned into lentil soup (with bits from the gammon}
You’ve done pretty much what I do with a decent joint too @SilverTabby - except I keep the skin and crackle it for myself & Zaphod Junior.
I love gammon and you can do lots with it, from marmalade-basting it to using it with tagliatelle.
Now I’m feeling hungry.
Love gammon or bacon joints and love either with pasta as well with a tomato based sauce or spaghetti carbonara with crispy bits of afore mentioned meat.
Yes - I soak it for about an hour and discard that water - usually over the weeds in the garden! Our butcher cures his own Gammon, so it is never very salty. I use the cooking water for the soup.
