Baked Ham with Delia's Cumberland Sauce

Most meat eaters have a ham over the Christmas period. I cooked one the other night for an impromptu, early festive dinner with my parents, sister and family. I forget how lovely and relatively simple a cooked ham is. This piece was a smoked Wiltshire joint from tesco (half price at the moment) which served 10 - 12. I cooked it for just less than 2½ hours. I served mine with delicious Cumberland sauce, such a wonderful and worthwhile accompaniment. It can be made in advance and warmed up again. I roasted some potatoes, carrots and steamed some sprouts. I also made a lovely dish of braised red cabbage and then forgot to serve it. I have frozen it for future use. 

Cumberland Sauce

Ingredients

Serves 8

1 medium lemon

1 medium orange
4 heaped tablespoons of redcurrant jelly
4 tablespoons port
1 heaped teaspoon of mustard powder
1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger

Method

First, thinly pare off the zest of both the lemon and the orange, using a potato peeler, then cut them into very small strips ½ inch (1 cm) long and as thin as possible. Boil them in water for 5 minutes to extract any bitterness, then drain well. (I didn't do this stage and just used the juices of the lemon and the orange)
Now place the redcurrant jelly in a saucepan with the port and melt, whisking them together over a low heat for about 5 or 10 minutes.
In a serving bowl, mix the mustard and ginger with the juice of half the lemon until smooth, then add the juice of the whole orange, the port and redcurrant mixture, and finally the strips of lemon and orange zest. Mix well and the sauce is ready to use.
Cumberland sauce stores well in a screw-top jar in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.