TRADITIONAL ENGLISH RECIPES

PEPPERED GAMMON

Traditionally we eat Pork accompanied by apple sauce. In this recipe the gammon is cooked in the apple sauce, but with some simple but subtle twists that impart a magnificent favour to the final dish. Peppered Gammon takes about 15 minutes to cook. The apple sauce can be commercially bought, can be from a sauce recipe on this site or it can be a mixture of bought sauce and a raw apple - the details are at the end of the 'Method' section. Can I recommend that you either use the apple sauce recipe on this site or use a mixture of bought sauce and fresh apple - the 'real apple' aroma and taste help give a certain 'something' to the pork.

Ingredients:
4 Gammon Steaks (1 per person)
½ pint pork stock (from a stock cube)
Large heaped teaspoon of French Mustard
6 tablespoons of apple sauce *
1 large cooking apple
Coarse ground black pepper

Method:
1. Lightly shake the ground black pepper over the steaks and pat the pepper into the meat (using your hands) to make sure the pepper 'sticks'. Turn over and repeat on the other side. Please use ground black pepper that has not gone stale - the key ingredient is the smell of fresh ground pepper.

Steaks with ground pepper 'patted' into them by hand.

2. Turn on the oven to a very low heat (to keep the steaks warm whilst cooking the sauce later).
3. In shallow oil fry the steaks for about 5 minutes on each side until they are cooked to your liking. Transfer to an ovenproof tray and put in the oven to keep warm.
4. Decide on which apple sauce you are going to use (see below). Tip out most of the oil from the frying pan but leave a little containing any pepper that has come off the steaks. CAREFULLY pour in about ¼ pint of the hot pork stock (take care as the water goes onto the hot oil and stir well.
5. Now stir in the French mustard and apple puree, adding a little more stock if needed. The aim is not to have a watery sauce, but a thickish sauce. If all goes wrong then use our gravy disaster recover tip

The sauce simmering in the pan

6. Simmer the sauce for about 5 minutes to reduce it a little until it is the consistency that you like. Taste it and adjust with small amounts of pepper/apple/stock/mustard to your own taste.

2 steaks simmering in the sauce

7. Take the steaks out of the oven and place into the simmering sauce and continue to simmer for another 2 or 3 minutes.
8. Remove the steaks to warm plates. Carefully spoon or pour some of the remaining sauce into a gravy boat and place on the table. Also fill a small serving dish with more of your apple sauce and place on the table.

Apple Sauces:
For 4 gammon steaks you need about 6 tablespoons of apple sauce. Commercially prepared sauce out of a jar works well, but lacks the 'roughness' and 'smell' of fresh or home made apple sauce. What I do is to use 3 tablespoons of ready made sauce (from a jar or from our own recipe) and 3 tablespoons of a cooking apple that has been cored and put through the blender/chopper complete with a little of its skin.

Serving suggestion:
Serve with a side salad or on a bed of rice. The peppery steaks can be a little 'hot' to taste so a cheap cool white wine would be a great accompaniment to the meal.