Recipes for Christmas Eve: Highclere Castle's ham terrine, mulled wine pudding and champagne co*cktail (2024)

This year, Lady Carnarvon and the staff at Highclere Castle invited The Telegraph to join in their festive celebrations, and shared their recipes for the Christmas period. Here is their feast for Christmas Eve.

Ham-hock terrine

SERVES

8-10

INGREDIENTS

• 4 ‘green’ (cured but 
unsmoked) ham hocks
• 75g demerara sugar per kilo of 
ham hock
• 6 bay leaves
• 15 black peppercorns
• 6 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 sprigs rosemary
• 1 bunch thyme
• 40g curly parsley, chopped
• zest and juice of 2 large oranges
• 2 tbsp English mustard, or to taste

METHOD

1. Line a one-litre terrine mould with cling film, leaving it hanging over 
 the edges.
2. Weigh out the sugar and set it aside. Rinse the ham hocks under running cold water for a good 20 minutes to remove any salt.
3. Place the washed hocks in one large saucepan and cover with water. Add the bay leaves, peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon stick, rosemary and thyme, then add the pre-weighed sugar.
4. Cut out a circle of greaseproof paper to fit the saucepan and place it over the contents in the pan. Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer for 3-4 hours, or until the meat is falling from the bone.
5. Very carefully remove the meat from the stock with a slotted spoon and set aside. Pass the stock through a fine sieve, discarding all the solids, and place the stock back on the heat to boil.
6. Pick the meat off the bones but don’t mash it – you are after flakes. Place in a mixing bowl and season to taste. Add the parsley, orange zest and juice, and the English mustard to taste.
7. Add one ladleful of the reduced stock to the meat, and stir through gently (keep the rest of the reduced stock to make a pea and ham soup). Transfer the mixture to the terrine mould and press it down firmly. Fold the cling film over to cover the mixture.
8. Place in the fridge to chill overnight, with a plate and small weight on top to keep the shape. Turn out and remove the cling film to slice, and serve with crusty bread, piccalilli and mustard.

Mulled-wine winter pudding


SERVES

6

INGREDIENTS

• 750g mixture of winter fruit and berries (such as apples, blood oranges, cranberries, pears and quince; don’t be afraid to use frozen raspberries and redcurrants, too), plus 150g fresh berries, to garnish
• squeeze of lemon juice, if needed
• 75cl bottle good red wine
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds only
• 4 whole cloves
• 2 star anise
• zest and juice of 1 blood orange
• 200g redcurrant jelly
• Nutmeg, freshly grated, to taste
• 150g sugar, or to taste
• 4 leaves of bronze-leaf
• gelatin (2.5g each)
• 800g stale loaf of sliced white bread, 
crusts removed
• 10 mint tips, to garnish (optional)
• clotted cream, to serve

METHOD

1. Prepare the fruit in similar-sized pieces: for apples, peel, core and chop into 1cm cubes (toss in a little lemon juice to prevent discolouration), for blood oranges, peel and then cut each segment in half.
2. Line a one-litre pudding basin with cling film.
3. Place the red wine in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with the cinnamon stick, vanilla seeds, cloves, star anise, orange zest and juice, and redcurrant jelly. Add freshly grated nutmeg to taste, and bring the mixture to the boil.
4. When hot, taste, and add as much or as little sugar as you like, then heat to reduce by half. This will give you a wonderful cooking stock in which to soak the fruits and stain the bread for your pudding.
5. Soak the gelatin leaves in a little water, until soft.
6. Add the prepared fruit and berries to the red-wine reduction and allow to simmer gently for no more than five minutes to soften the fruit.
7. Squeeze the softened gelatin to rid it of excess water and add it to the mixture to dissolve, being careful not 
to crush the fruits as you stir.
8. Taste again and correct the sweetness if necessary, then strain into a bowl, discard the spices and keep the fruit to one side.
9. Dip the bread slices into the mulled-wine stock, until completely stained but not soggy. Use them to line the cling-filmed bowl, overlapping a little if you need.
10. When fully lined with bread, start to add the fruit (feel free to add a layer of bread in the middle of the pudding if you like). Fill the basin with fruit and pour in some of the mulled-wine stock, saving the rest in the fridge for later.
11. Cover the base with more stained bread slices and wrap with cling film.
12. Place a small plate on top with a small weight to help maintain its shape. Place in the fridge to firm up overnight.
13. The next day, turn out the pudding and remove the cling film. Pour over some of the remaining sauce (if this has set, just heat it a little to bring back to pouring consistency), and serve the rest in a jug at the table.
14. Garnish with the remaining berries and some mint tips if you like, and a generous side of clotted cream.

Luis’s Christmas co*cktail


MAKES

1

INGREDIENTS

• 115g caster sugar
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 4 whole cloves
• zest of ¼ orange, removed in 
large strips
• 35ml cranberry juice, plus extra to 
wet the rim of the glass
• red sugar, to garnish (to make your own coloured sugar, see below)
• champagne, to top up (we use Highclere’s own champagne)

METHOD

1. To make the spiced syrup, mix 260ml cold water with the sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves and orange peel in a saucepan. Bring to the boil over a low heat, gently stirring.
2. Let the mixture reduce until you achieve a syrup-like texture (approximately five minutes 
after boiling).
3. Remove the cinnamon, cloves and orange peel and leave the syrup to cool.
4. Dip the rim of the champagne flute into cranberry juice and then into the red sugar to garnish.
5. Fill the flute with 50ml of the spiced syrup and the cranberry juice. Top up with champagne.