Nigella's ham cooked in coke.

[chezlamere]

Made nigella's coked up ham and WOW was it ever good. Anyone else made anything of hers that everyone raved about? One of my guest for XMas dinner asked "what can I bring"? Don't know why I suggested ham in coke. But she rose to the challange and I gotta say it was THE star of the dinner. I picked away at the remains until the weekend and then went and bought a ham for new years. I used regular molasses but she used pomegranate molasses. Her's was better. Three other guest also made the ham for new years. It even tastes better days later. So if your going to make this, buy 2.

[SilverlakeGirl]

Was anyone else as curious as I was about this recipe? Here it is:

http://www.channel4.com/life/microsit...

[hitachino]

nigella got this from old 'white trash' recipes. coca cola ham is like RC and peanuts to southerners. and moon pies.

it may be cliche, but it's true.

what with all the hellmans, velveeta, coca cola ham talk around heayuh -- someone needs to start a white trash recipes thread ;)

[krissywats]

there was a small one a while back:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/30787...

[cristina]

Lord, chile, my mama baked ham in Co'cola from before I can remember. This young Nigella is just copyin' things that have existed since dirt.

[Kagey]

I'm a long time Nigella fan. I love her whole philosophy about food. Her baking recipes convinced me that I could, in fact, bake really good cakes after my previous struggles with fussier recipes.

Other Nigella recipes that have been popular around here are her clementine cake and her watermelon, feta, and black olive salad.

I think her How To Eat is essential, but I'd recommend any of her books to anyone.

[heidipie]

Most everything in "Forever Summer" is just terrific. I especially like the lamb patties and the feta-stuffed eggplant rolls.

[foiehaha]

Last weekend I made the ham cooked in cider with boiled potatoes, onions spiked with cloves, leeks and bay leaves, etc. It was divine as is everything I have made by her. There hasn't been one failure, one maybe or mediocre repas.

Her fanciful, irreverent prose style only adds to the great Dimanche en campagne fare.

[chezlamere]

Orange soda????
Doesn't sound very appetizing. I wonder what cream soda would be like.

[Isabella]

Cream Soda would be good, as would ginger beer.

Here, now, in New Orleans, we use Barq's Root Beer.

Growing up, here in New Orleans, my family used 7up.

[geg5150]

I grew up in northern LA and we used Dr Pepper. Fabulous!

[Slackerchick]

Yup, Dr. Pepper. Even better than Coke on the ham.

[acme]

Instead of using Coke I used orange soda, it was wonderfull!

[foiehaha]

That took guts!

[alyssap99]

i love her cookbooks, too. her lemon risotto and lemon linguine recipes are great (i think these are also available online if you do a search). and she has a nice recipe for thai mussels that is really easy and quite healthy.

[krissywats]

I second the lemon risotto.

Also her kedgeree (sp?) is really great and worth the effort.

[isabellaflynn]

I made her cherry chocolate trifle for Christmas recently and it was very good. It's in the "Feast" cookbook....

[wyf4lyf]

I didn't use Nigella's recipe, but I did make a Coke-basted ham last night that was incredible. Score the fat, rub allspice all over the ham, cook in 2-liters of Coke, basting every 15 minutes for the first 90 minutes. Then glaze with apricot preserves mixed with orange juice. Glaze and baste every 15 minutes until done. It was OUT OF THIS WORLD and I am really not a ham lover. My son, who had requested the ham, was ecstatic!!

[foiehaha]

Excellent.

[slslaughter]

I, too, really like Nigella Lawson's recipes.
I have made the brownies from the Domestic Goddess cookbook many many times and they are always a huge hit - super rich and fudgey. mmmmm... Two notes though, I bake them for a bit longer than specified and sometimes add dried tart cherries.

[maria_nyc]

I guess there is a long tradition of cooking with coke.
In Colombia there is a typical rice dish which is cooked with coke instead of water.

[zebcook]

Do you have this recipe? Not sure I'd ever make it, but it sounds interesting.

[maria_nyc]

I used to have a clipping with this recipe but I am not sure where
it's anymore. However, looking online I found this recipe which may work:
Ingredients
2 cups of rice
4 cups of coca-cola
prunes (amount flexible to taste)
red onion
salt
oil

Heat oil in a pot and add the chopped onions. When the onions are translucent add the coke plus salt to taste. Once the liquid begins to boil add the rice and the chopped prunes and adjust the salt. Let it cook uncovered until liquid dries then cover the
pot until it's totally cooked.

In other variations of this recipe, people use raisins instead of chopped prunes. And some recipes call for a bit of butter when the rice is almost ready and some say to add the raisins at this stage and not earlier like in the recipe above.

[Candy]

Cooking country ham with coke goes way back. I also have an old recipe that calls for it to be tenderized by cooking with champange or ginger ale.

[weezycom]

I remember ham with a Coke glaze being talked about in the book "Red Sky at Morning," and I think that was written in the early '60s, mebbe?

[Bostonbob3]

Wow, I remember when I was real little, I had an aunt who made her ham with coke (the drink...my college roommate "altered" the recipe years later:))

Anyway, I think the idea of using cola as a glaze ingredient is actually pretty old.

[MeffaBabe]

I have watched her for years and have made a multitude of her dishes and everyone is better than the next. She uses the simplest of ingredients and yet the combinations are divine.