Ok looking at the River Cottage video again it says I need 2 days per kilo in the brine, the ham is 8.7kg so I would need to have it in there for 17 days. But this length of time is only needed if you intend leaving the ham for a few week or months to hang outside and dry. It looks like I can get away with 16 days in the brine meaning it will be ready to boil on the Monday 22nd December or I could leave it until the 23rd.

Here is a pic of the brine cooking up in the 30lt pot.

The brine is made up of the following:

• 8lts water
• 4lts apple juice
• 2lts cider
• bottle of craft beer I found in the fridge, that's giving the foam in the pic
• 4kg salt
• 2kg soft brown sugar
• 2kg dermera sugar
• 12 bay leaves
• 24 juniper berries
• 24 black pepper corns
• 12 cloves

This is brought to the boil carefully not letting the sugar burn to the bottom of the pot. The brine must be let go completely cold as you do not want to cook the ham. Should take too long today, only 5 degrees outside...

In goes the ham straight from the freezer, I got the saw out and cut off the trotter...

Pouring in the brine...

Outside the garage door until its ready...