Christmas Gammon Recipe because although Christmas is more than just what we eat, doesn't mean the food holds no significance. This traditional meat roast is always a treat and in true holiday spirit is the centerpiece of the table. With a 3.2 kg deboned uncooked gammon I am sharing all the tips and suggestions with you (full recipe card below) please enjoy!

I've officially earned the name 'gammon mom' so it's become expected at this time of year. My other gammon recipes are this Frangelico glazed gammon, Instant Pot Gammon with a smoky umami glaze.

How To Make A Christmas Gammon

This gammon starts off by simmering on the stove top and then oven baked with the glaze on. We baste along the way while oven roasting.

Simmer: Start by filling a large pot with cold water at least ¾ way up, just covering the gammon. Add your veggies in. We are using celery stalks, carrots and onions. Feel free to add spices like black mustard seeds, bay leaves and black peppercorns.

Can I Use Any Liquid For The Simmer

Bonus: Yes you can! Well something in the line of stock, fruit juice or cider not only water, it's entirely up to you. This is to add flavor to your stock and you also end up with a beautiful stock for other recipes. My personal preference is to simmer the gammon in plain water with the veggies just explained. You can always add flavor but its never as easy to tone the taste down so rather play it safe with water.

Simmer: Bring your pot with gammon to a boil then drop to a reasonable simmer for 2 hours. Check the size of your gammon to work out the simmering time. I work with 20 minutes per 500 grams which leaves enough time to make the side dishes.

Cool down: Remove your gammon and set aside on a large baking tray or board to cool down. This size gammon takes about 20 minutes to cool down. Meanwhile, pour the veggies and liquid through a strainer discarding the overcooked veggies and save your flavor stock for another recipe.

Prepare Your Christmas Gammon For The Oven Roast

Remove the skin: The net and the skin or the rind are removed. You want to leave all the fat behind or as much fat as you can so when you take the skin off, use your fingers to help protect the fat by sliding one finger against the inside of the skin as you pull. The fat on gammon is good for flavor and it helps keep it succulent.

Use a sharp knife to score diamond shapes into the fat trying not to go too deep into the meat. The gammon is already cooked after the simmer so the fat is tender enough, the knife should automatically do the work for you now.

The Glaze

Glaze: If you want you can insert cloves into the corners of the diamond shapes and then pour your glaze over. For the glaze combine soft brown sugar, maple syrup or honey, a little Dijon mustard and a little rum for kick. Also see my glaze recipes, one with Frangelico and one with bourbon or just use a mix of mustard and honey. It all depends on what you like, even add butter for the creamy rich flavor.

When brushing the glaze, light gentle strokes so as not to remove cloves if using any. You can also simply let the glaze flow where and how it wants over the gammon 🙂

The cloves generally go on the corners of the diamond shapes (by every X), however, it's not a rule 🙂

Making Your Christmas Gammon Glaze

Your glaze must contain maple syrup, sugar or honey for sweetness and to create a sweet and salty with the salt from the gammon. And add the mustard for tang.

Oven bake: Once your gammon has been simmered, skin off, diamond shapes, cloves if using and glazed you're ready to roast. Place in the oven at 190C/375F for 20 minutes, take it out halfway through and glaze and back in again to finish the 20 minutes.

Tips and Suggestions

Take into consideration the size of your pot when buying your gammon.

Use your glaze to baste as often as you can. It takes a few minutes to pull the gammon out of the oven, baste and return to continue roasting but it's worth it!

I would suggest not simmering the glaze for long at all or it becomes too thick. In which case you have to get it back on the stove (or microwave) for a quick warm up to help it melt down.

Play around with your glaze, if it's too liquid, add more sugar, if you want more of a tang, add mustard or cider vinegar which will also help thin it out.

Leftover Christmas Gammon

Sliced ham sandwiches, salads, pasta bakes and pies are some of recipes suitable for your leftover gammon. (and worth every minute!)

Suggested Sides

These sides are perfect for any roast meat and are always loved and enjoyed by those around the table.

Christmas Gammon Recipe is a delicious meat roast that makes a perfect centerpiece! There's no mistaking my gammon recipe and a quick and easy glaze. Merry Christmas!

More Delicious Meat Roasts

If you try this Christmas Gammon please feel free to leave me a comment and a star rating! And if you take a photo of your dish and share it on Instagram, please tag me @anosmickitchen and use the hashtag #anosmickitchen because I love seeing your remakes! Happy cooking😀

Recipe

Christmas Gammon Recipe

Miranda | My Anosmic Kitchen

My Christmas Gammon recipe is filled with tips, full method and images, it couldn't be easier to prepare not just any gammon, but the best gammon for your Christmas lunch or any other day. It makes the perfect centerpiece. Merry Christmas!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 2

Total Time 2 15

Ingredients

3.2 kg deboned gammon
1 celery stalk
coriander seeds
1 teaspoon peppercorns
2 bay leaves
cloves (purely decorative and presentation)

Glaze

½ cup muscovado sugar ( or any soft brown sugar)
¾ to 1 cup honey
1 ½ tbsps Dijon mustard
2 tbsps. unsalted butter

Instructions

Cook the gammon: Place the gammon in a large pot and add the veggies, top it up with water and bring to a boil. Once it boils, drop down to a decent simmer and let it simmer gently covered for 20 minutes per 500 grams.
Leave the gammon to cool after the cooking time. Remove it from the pot and place on a baking tray or board.
Prep gammon to roast: Remove the net (it there is one) and the skin (rind). If you slide your finger under the rind you should be able to gently remove the skin. Try to leave as much fat as possible on the gammon.
Use a small sharp knife to make diamond shapes into the fat, cutting the fat and not the meat. The gammon at this point is cooked so the knife should be doing the work for you, no effort involved.
Insert the cloves if using any into the diamond shapes.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/374°F
Make the glaze: Meanwhile, make the easy glaze for the gammon by combining all the ingredients into a saucepan. Bring it to a simmer and once it bubbles, stir and leave it on a low simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, occasional stirring. Don't leave it longer it will thicken as it stands.
Pour ¼ to ¾ of the glaze over the gammon and brush it over with a cooking brush making sure not to brush the cloves out.
Roasting your gammon: Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, take it out and pour the remaining glaze over. Leave it to continue cooking for another 15 to 20 minutes but keep rotating the tray and basting with any pan juices.
Rest and carve your gammon: Remove and rest the meat for 10 minutes before carving.

Notes

Cooking Time

How long your gammon cooks depends on the size. A gammon this size simmered for 1 ½ to 2 hours leaving ample time to make the sides.

Simmer

Feel free to add spices like black mustard seeds, bay leaves and black peppercorns with the vegetables to the gammon for a more flavor.

Glaze

My glaze for this recipe uses orange and maple syrup but you can use anything else like honey, a marmalade glaze, a bourbon or Frangelico glaze, soy glaze, mustard and honey, cranberry glaze and more.

Roasting

When roasting the gammon, you may want to layer your oven tray with aluminum foil for easy clean up especially with the glaze.

Any pan juices from the gammon must go straight into the glaze for that extra delicious flavor!

Optional but suggested

Add a squeeze of orange juice into the glaze for a pop of taste. It might take a little longer on the stove but only by a minute depending on how much you add. Add some orange slices into the oven tray while the gammon is roasting.

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