For all that we try and put the blame on the Hawaiians, there does seem to me to be something ineffably, if embarrassingly, English about the combination of ham and pineapple. I do not want to eat them together on my pizza, but like this, they justify the pairing. You may smirk, but this is not intended as an ironic exercise in gastro-rehabilitation here. Food, like life, has to be real, and this tastes really good. For all my robust internationalism – motto: if it tastes good, eat it – I do think that in the few warm weeks given to us, one wants food that reminds one of past summers, long ago ones, real or wistfully imagined. For me this means cold ham. Not that this is by any means an exclusively summer notion: when it’s cold out, eat the gammon – as ham should properly be called once it’s cooked – hot, but keep this accompaniment of sunny pineapple relish or salsa, however you want to think of it. You can use either mint or coriander in the pineapple relish: coriander takes it definitively into the domain of the salsa; mint gives it a cooling, English air. You choose. And if you want to mix the relish in the processor, then roughly chop everything, put the herbs and onions in and blitz first, then add the pineapple and lime juice and pulse.
These days, I find that you don’t need to soak ham before cooking it, but if you have any reason to believe you’ve got a piece of extremely salty ham in front of you, either sit it in a sinkful of cold water overnight or, when you cook it, put it in a panful of cold water, bring it to the boil then chuck out the water and proceed as below.
1 x 2.5–3kg mild cure gammon joint
1 x 1 litre carton pineapple juice
1 ripe pineapple
5 spring onions, trimmed, halved then finely sliced
juice of 1 lime
4 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander or 6 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 green chilli, deseeded roughly and finely chopped
salt
To cook the gammon, put the joint in a pan, pour over the pineapple juice and then add cold water to cover well. Put the pan on to boil, then turn down and cook at a simmer for 50 minutes per kg then, once it’s cooked, let it sit and cool in the liquid. Or eat it straightaway, keeping the liquid so that any leftovers can cool in it afterwards; this is the best way of making sure the gammon doesn’t dry out as it cools.
To make the relish, slice the pineapple, halve the slices then cut away the core and the skin and chop the fruit finely. Squeeze the pieces of skin over the bowl to catch any juices going, then stir in the onions, lime juice, herbs and chilli and add salt to taste, remembering that the ham will be fairly salty.