Simple Honey Roast Gammon

Easy Honey and Mustard Glazed Roast Gammon with vegetables is a popular roast dinner and here I'll walk you through the entire meal with all the timings plus side dishes so everything is ready on time.

Be sure to weigh your gammon joint before starting so you can calculate the cooking time (see below). People often ask what's the difference between a gammon and a ham joint? The answer is none. The uncooked joint is often called gammon and once it is roasted or boiled, it becomes a ham.

How to Cook a Gammon Joint

You can cook a gammon joint by boiling it or by a combination of boiling and roasting in the oven. If you're roasting it, then you can glaze it with for example a honey and mustard glaze. Glazing your gammon joint not only adds lovely extra flavour, it also stops it drying out. Scoring the skin and adding cloves as in the image above, adds a sweet spicy flavour and also looks impressive.

Roasting and boiling times for Gammon

To calculate the cooking time for your gammon joint, weigh it then use the calculation below. Place it in a large pan. Cover with cold water, bring to the boil then simmer for half the cooking time if you're going to roast it. You can add some extra flavour to the water if you like such as cloves, cinnamon or bay leaves.

20 minutes for each 450-500g/1lb plus an extra 20 minutes.

To roast your gammon joint, boil it for just half the cooking time. Remove it from the oven. Place it in a foil-lined roasting tin and cover loosely with foil. Bake for the remaining cooking time at 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Twenty to thirty minutes before the end of cooking time, increase the oven temperature to 220°C/425°F/ gas mark 7. Brush your gammon joint with your glaze and cook the joint uncovered for the rest of the time. Don't forget to let the joint rest at the end of the cooking time. Once you've removed it from the oven, just cover it with foil and leave it for 20 minutes. Resting joints allows the meat juices time to redistribute and ensure the meat is nice and moist.

How to prepare the entire meal

Gather all your ingredients and choose a few vegetables alongside potatoes. I've gone for carrots and green cabbage to give some colour to the plate. Weigh your joint and calculate the cooking time using the guide above. Add on an extra 20 minutes resting time for the meat. (cooking time plus 20 minutes plus 20 minutes resting time). Decide what time you'd like to eat and work back from there. When you're ready to start, just follow the guide below for all your timings.

Place your gammon joint in a large pan of cold water along with some cloves and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and simmer for half the cooking time.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Tear off 2 large pieces of tin foil and arrange one lengthways and one width ways in a roasting tin. Once you have half cooked your gammon, remove it from the pan and place in the roasting tin with the onion. Bring up the sides of the foil laid width ways and fold the top together to form a seal, keeping the foil loose around the gammon so air can circulate. Do the same with the piece laid lengthways. Place in the oven to cook for the remaining cooking time. We'll add the honey glaze and some cloves for the last 20 minutes of roasting time.

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Moving on to the vegetables. Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil and add the potatoes. Bring the pan back to the boil and cook for 5 minutes. Add the parsnips and carrots and boil for a further 4 minutes, then drain everything through a colander.

45 Minutes Before Eating

Add the oil to a roasting tin and toss the potatoes, carrots and parsnips to coat in the oil. Add the rosemary and a pinch of salt and pepper. Make sure the vegetables are lying in a single layer so they roast properly. Put the tray in the oven.

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40 Minutes Before Eating

Remove the gammon joint and increase the oven temperature to 220°C/425°F/ gas mark 7. Peel off the skin from the gammon joint leaving behind a layer of fat. Score the fat in a diamond pattern, taking care not to cut into the meat. Mix the honey & mustard and spread all over the joint then push a clove into the centre of each "X". Return the joint to the oven for 20 - 30 minutes until it is golden on top.

20 Minutes Before Eating

Remove the gammon, cover it with the foil and leave it to rest on a carving tray for 20 minutes until the rest of the dinner is ready.

15 Minutes Before Eating -making the gravy

A Roast Gammon joint doesn't provide much in the way of meat juices for making a gravy, but we can still make a delicious homemade gravy. In a pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and stir in 1 tablespoon of plain flour. This will make a paste which is used to thicken the gravy. Dissolve a stock cube in 300ml of boiling water and slowly add to the gravy paste stirring all the time. I like to use a beef stock cube as I find it gives the best flavour and also colour. If you like, you can add a little port or red wine but this is optional. Keep stirring your gravy until it thickens. Taste your gravy and check you are happy with the flavour. Add a dash of salt or pepper if necessary. To make your gravy gluten free, use Cornflour instead of plain flour.

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10 Minutes Before Eating

Put the cabbage on to steam . Pour about 3cm deep of water in the bottom of a pan and bring to the boil. Place the colander or steamer over the top, cover with a lid and steam for 5 minutes.

5 Minutes Before Eating

Carve the meat and serve with all the vegetables.

What to Serve with Gammon

Gammon is a great roast and goes well with a large variety of vegetables Choose two or three alongside potatoes. I would always serve it with roast potatoes, but you could use other potatoes such as baked or mashed if you like. Try to use vegetables in season and include something green or the dinner will look bland. Other vegetable suggestions include carrots, red cabbage and roast parnips. Put the roast parsnips in the same tray as the potatoes. Leeks in a cheese sauce or 'Cheesy Leeks' as my kids call them are good for adding a sauce, particularly if you're not having gravy as well. Peas Pudding, which is made from yellow split peas is something that is traditionally served with Roast Gammon or ham. Make this yourself, or buy it in a tin. Table sauces that go well with roast gammon include mustard, apple sauce or cranberry sauce.

Leftover Gammon Recipes

My kids love it when we have gammon because it means we can have Spaghetti Carbonara the next day! This is a great way to use up any leftover gammon. If you haven't quite got enough, just add in some bacon. To use up any leftover vegetables, why not try a Soup? If you have just a small amount of gammon left, you can use it in a Quiche? Quiches are great for using up small amounts of leftovers. If you're in a hurry, try a Crustless Quiche

Sustainability

Try to buy your gammon joint from your local butcher or farm. This not only reduces food miles, but you invariably get a good quality, high animal welfare joint. You may be able to buy an organic gammon joint. On organic farms, animals are truly free range with plenty of space to graze and forage. The standards also mean more space per animal, plus high standards of feed and bedding and no routine use of antibiotics. The animals' organic feed cannot contain animal by-products, antibiotics or genetically engineered grains and cannot be grown using persistent pesticides or chemical fertilizers. The Soil Association has more information on what organic meat means.

Storage

Cooked gammon will keep in the fridge for 3 - 4 days. You can also freeze it. Slice the remaining gammon and seperate each slice with some greaseproof paper so you can use it as you need it. It will freeze for 3 - 4 months. After this time, it will still be safe to eat, but the texture may have deteriorated a little.

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