Josceline Dimbleby

Cold Spiced Ham Baked in Black Treacle

Preparation info
    • Difficulty

      Medium

Appears in
A Taste of Dreams
A Taste of Dreams

By Josceline Dimbleby

Published 1976

  • About

This is a mouthwatering way of cooking smoked, rolled collar or a more expensive joint of gammon to eat cold. It has a wonderfully mellow, aromatic flavour and you can carve it in very thin slices. It is perfect for parties or whenever you have to feed a lot of people.

Ingredients

  • 1 piece of rolled smoked collar. Whatever size you need, it will shrink a bit in the cooking but a 4–5 lb piece (1.75–2.25 kg)

Method

Soak the piece of bacon in cold water for at least 12 hours, changing the water two or three times. Then crush some juniper berries in a mortar and poke them right into the bacon with your fingers where you can, or make incisions if it is rolled so tightly that you can’t get your fingers right in. Stick cloves into the joint all over. Crush the whole allspice in the mortar and press them as fir