Gammon slow cooked in Coca-Cola

As it is Independence day in USA, I am celebrating with this recipe for gammon cooked in Coca-Cola.

Despite having worked for Coca-Cola in the past, I have never ever cooked with the stuff.  I have seen several cookery books featuring recipes with Coke but the only one that I have heard people rave about is this one for gammon.  I have thought about trying it for ages but have only just got around to it. (Procrastination is no stranger to me!)

A gammon joint isn’t cheap so it was with a fair bit of trepidation that I started this.  The principle is that the ingredients in the Coke both tenderise the meat and give it flavour.

To make this dish you will need

1 gammon joint (make sure that it will fit into your slow cooker pot)

1 litre Coca-Cola

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp mustard powder

10-12 cloves (make sure you count them going in and again coming back out as there is nothing worse that biting into a rogue clove!)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Place the gammon in a bowl and cover with cold water.  Allow to sit for a while before discarding the water

place the gammon in the pot and pour the coke over it (I used 3 X 300ml cans).  Cover with the lid, turn on the cooker and cook overnight

Remove from the liquid and cut off the outer layer of fat.  Leave a layer of fat on the meat for the final roasting stage

mix together the syrup, sugar and mustard with a little of the cooking liquid to create a marinade.

stud the gammon with the cloves and place in a roasting dish

Completely coat the meat with the marinade

Roast in the oven for 45 minutes, continuously basting with the marinade

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving

Serve and enjoy with seasonal vegetables.  I made some parsley sauce which worked really well against the sweetness of the gammon!  Just beware this is very more-ish and if you are anything like me- you will keep sneaking back for a nibble!