Marmalade glazed gammon

This year, National Marmalade Week is teaming up with Hospice at Home for its ‘Go Orange’ Appeal. To take part, simply organise a fundraiser between the 2nd and 9th March with a citrus, marmalade or orange theme. How about organising a citrus-themed bake sale at your children’s school or dig some orange trousers out the back of your wardrobe and get your mates over for a night of Breakfast Martinis. You could even host a marmalade themed dinner party and rattle a tin for donations at your guests. They won’t mind. It’s for charity!

One of my favourite ways to eat marmalade is liberally spread over a quiveringly tender hunk of gammon, studded with cloves and ready for a blast in the oven. There’s no doubt that a whole gammon is an easy and versatile way to feed a crowd and it has the added bonus of providing plenty of cold cuts for teatime sandwiches as well as a vat of homemade ham stock for soup. But you don’t have to be feeding the 5000 for an excuse to indulge in some pink, porky goodness.

I bought a small (1.5 kilo) piece of gammon from my local butcher’s, before boiling, glazing and baking it. Although not the cheapest cut of meat at just under £18, there was enough meat for lunch for 4 with plenty of leftover cold cuts for us to scoff with pickles and chutney the next evening. I also made a full-bodied butternut squash and sage soup with the stock, which made enough for 12 portions. If you think how much a measly 3 slices of ham in a plastic packet at the supermarket costs, suddenly that £18 doesn’t seem so steep after all.