John Rudden, chef director, White Hart, Lydgate, near Oldham, Lancashire

Although White Hart chef/ director John Rudden's first attempt at creating a green gammon main course fell rather flat, he was pleased with his final results.

"Cooking gammon really was a first for me. In my 12 years at the White Hart I'd never served gammon and my previous restaurant didn't use it. I hadn't even served it at college."

Unsurprisingly, John found his initial recipe for braised gammon lacked flair.

"The first time I cooked it, I boiled it in a liquor with vegetables and roasted it at the very end. It lost a lot of flavour, so we par-boiled it for 20 to 30 minutes to take away the harshness and saltiness before roasting it until it reached a core temperature of 60°C.

"That resulted in a very tasty dish."

To improve presentation, John halved the joint. "Gammon is quite a big cut so we sliced it in half length-ways and rolled and tied it to make it look more attractive. No-one wants a big slab of meat dumped on a plate."

The White Hart put on a honey-roast gammon with a cassoulet of beans as one of the five main courses on its special-offer menu, which offers customers a two-course meal deal for £18.50. On the full White Hart menu, mains cost between £15 to £20.

Over a four-day trial, John says that the 50 portions of green gammon served equated to about 40% of the covers chosen from the special offer menu. The dishes made a GP of about 75% to 80%.

"People can be dismissive about gammon, but we put a free-range description on the menu, which really helped to lift its profile and customer feedback was very good.

"We informed our staff that the gammon was free-range and they all tried the ham.

"At first they questioned why we were doing gammon here, but in the end they were very pleasantly surprised."

The White Hart also hosted a medical conference during the trial when John created a dish of roast gammon and bubble and squeak served with caper jus and a poached egg for a real "ham and egg feel". It proved to be a hit - 19 out of 30 delegates chose the gammon.

John said: "I don't think there's a mass market for gammon here - it has to be really special as people do cook it at home. But I've learned to give it more respect and I will definitely consider using it on our wedding and conference menus."

John's ham menu

Honey-roast gammon with a cassoulet of beans;

Roast gammon and bubble and squeak served with caper jus and a poached egg.

Roast free-range gammon with bean cassoulet and honey jus

Serves 4

Ingredients

1.4kg/3lb mini gammon joint tied and soaked overnight

2 cups of soaked butter beans

1 cup of diced vegetable mirepoix (carrots, celery, onions)

1 bay leaf

1 clove of garlic

2 pints of stock chicken

1 tbsp of honey

Method

Sweat mirepoix off in a little olive oil but do not colour; add butter beans, bayleaf, garlic and season lightly and add stock. Cover and cook for 2-3 hours until cooked.

Pre-soak the gammon overnight in water. Preheat the oven to 240°C/475 °F/gas mark 8 and roast gammon dry until golden. Turn oven down to 150 °C and cook the gammon until it reaches 60°C internal temperature. Leave to rest for ½ hour.

Drain the beans and add 1 tbsp of honey to cooking liquor. Add chopped parsley to the beans.

To serve, carve ham on to beans and spoon honey jus over and around the dish.