Gammon

What is Gammon?

Gammon is a cut of cured pork taken from the pig's hind leg. In Irish and British food culture, it specifically refers to the rear leg when cured together with an entire side of bacon. Because of this curing method, gammon is raw meat rather than a ready-to-eat charcuterie item. Unlike dry-cured continental specialties such as prosciutto or serrano ham, it cannot be eaten raw and requires thorough cooking beforehand. When prepared, it delivers a salty, rich flavour with a tender, meaty texture. The piece may be sold either as a hefty joint destined for the oven or cut into thick steaks. At the lower tip sits the hock or knuckle, a firmer portion packed with sinew and connective tissue.

Where does Gammon come from?

The word gammon entered the English language in the early fifteenth century as gambon, borrowed from the Old North French form of jambon. That term developed from the Old French noun jambe, which can be tracked back to Late Latin gamba, referring to an animal's leg or hock. Earlier still, the root links to the Greek word kampe, describing a bend or joint. In regional English dialects, the related word gambol similarly came to mean a leg. While modern British and Irish cooking maintains a sharp boundary between ham and gammon based on how the animal was butchered and cured, most other English-speaking traditions make no real division between the two names.

How is Gammon made?

Gammon begins with the rear leg cut from a pig carcass. Unlike individual hams cured on their own, a gammon is cured as part of a complete bacon side before being separated. The raw meat is preserved using either dry-salting, where dry salt coats the exterior, or immersion in a seasoned liquid brine. Depending on the style, the cured leg may then undergo smoking over wood smoke to impart an aromatic, savoury finish, or it can be left unsmoked. Because the meat is only cured and never air-dried or aged into a raw table ham, it stays strictly raw until cooked through by boiling, baking, pan frying, or grilling.

How and when is Gammon eaten?

Cooked gammon is a customary centrepiece for Christmas feasts across Ireland and the United Kingdom. Families regularly roast or boil a whole joint for the holiday table, slicing the warm meat to serve alongside festive trimmings. Outside the winter holidays, grocers and butcher shops offer gammon all year long. Thickly sliced gammon steaks provide an everyday hot meal, quickly prepared over high heat in a frying pan or under a grill much like rashers of bacon. Gammon can feature as the main dish at lunch or evening dinner, enjoyed warm from the stove or sliced cold the following day.

Kinds of Gammon

Shoppers can choose between smoked and unsmoked gammon, depending on whether they prefer a subtle sweet saltiness or deep smoky wood tones. The cut is sold either whole as a roasting joint or sliced across the grain into individual steaks for quick frying. The gammon hock, also called the knuckle, forms another distinct cut taken from the back end of the leg. This connective, sinewy cut behaves differently during cooking, softening slowly and offering a gelatinous texture compared to the leaner, meatier upper slices of the joint.

What Gammon means

Gammon holds a firm spot in festive traditions across Britain and Ireland, appearing on winter holiday menus alongside roast poultry. Beyond the kitchen, the word has had an unusual linguistic journey in Britain. During the nineteenth century, people used gammon or the phrase gammon and spinach to denote nonsensical talk, deceit, or outright humbug. Much more recently, in the twenty-tens, the term took on an entirely separate political meaning in British slang, becoming a disparaging label directed at red-faced, older conservative commentators whose flushed complexions supposedly resembled a slab of cured pork.

When Gammon is on the table

Questions people ask about Gammon

Good reading and sources

• Gammon (meat) on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data