The great traditional North American festive roast: a fresh ham with meltingly tender meat and crispy crackling skin, served with its cider-reduced jus and candied onions.
Ingredients
- 4 kg fresh ham with skin
- 3 pieces yellow storage onion
- 8 cloves fresh French garlic
- 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 12 leaves fresh sage
- 2 tbsp unrefined coarse sea salt
- 1 tbsp Madagascar black peppercorns
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 50 cl pure juice farmhouse dry apple cider
- 50 cl unsalted chicken broth
- 30 g T55 wheat flour
- 30 g pasteurized unsalted butter (82% butterfat)
Method
- Take the fresh ham out of the refrigerator an hour in advance, then meticulously pat the entire surface and skin dry with paper towels to remove any moisture.
- Using a very sharp knife, score the skin and the underlying fat in a regular diamond pattern, stopping just before reaching the meat.
- Finely chop the sage leaves, rosemary needles and peeled garlic cloves, then crush the black pepper in a mortar.
- Mix the chopped herbs, garlic, black pepper, coarse sea salt and olive oil in a bowl to form a smooth aromatic paste.
- Rub and massage the pork with this mixture, paying special attention to the depth of the incisions and the entire surface of the meat.
- Peel the onions, cut them into thick slices and spread them over the bottom of a large roasting pan to form a protective bed.
- Place the piece of meat on the onions, skin side up, then preheat the oven to 160 °C on convection.
- Pour the dry apple cider into the bottom of the pan around the meat, without ever getting the skin wet.
- Roast for three hours of slow cooking, occasionally basting the meat with the pan juices while keeping the skin completely dry.
- Insert a probe thermometer into the center of the ham without touching the bone to ensure it reaches 68 °C.
- Increase the oven temperature to 230 °C for fifteen to twenty minutes, until the skin crackles, puffs up and turns into golden cracklings.
- Carefully transfer the meat to a cutting board, loosely cover it with a sheet of parchment paper and let it rest for thirty minutes.
- Place the roasting pan directly over medium heat with the caramelized onions and pan juices, pour in the chicken broth and scrape the bottom with a wooden spatula to deglaze.
- In a separate saucepan, melt the unsalted butter, whisk in the wheat flour and whisk for two minutes to obtain a fragrant blond roux.
- Strain the deglazing juices through a fine-mesh sieve over the roux while whisking continuously, then simmer gently until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.
- Break off pieces of the crackling skin, carve the roast into clean slices along the muscle and serve hot with the smooth cider sauce.
Nutrition
Per serving
- Energy
- 672.4 kcal
- Protein
- 53.48 g
- Carbohydrate
- 5.46 g
- Fat
- 47.25 g
- Fibre
- 0.62 g
- Calcium
- 10.18 mg
- Iron
- 0.29 mg
- Magnesium
- 4.42 mg
