We show you how to cook the best honey roast gammon joint.
We give you the cooking time per kg for how long to boil gammon in a pan and the instant pot/pressure cooker gammon method.
A simple honey and mustard glaze is poured over the boiled ham before being oven-roasted giving a delightful sticky, sweet taste.
Most popular at Christmas, but we love it all year round for a delicious Sunday roast dinner with all the trimmings, use up leftover slices of ham for lunch!
We also have a slow cooker gammon joint recipe, and a gammon steak recipe you may want to try.
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How to cook a honey roast gammon joint?
Check out the video below for easy-to-follow steps to creating this simple roast gammon dinner.
The recipe card instructions tell you how to long to boil and roast a 2kg gammon joint. But we have also given the cooking times for per kg for all gammon joint sizes.
Jump to Recipe for the best way to cook gammon joint.Should I boil or roast a Gammon Joint?
You can boil or roast a gammon joint, we find combining the two methods, is best resulting in moist meat from boiling. With a delicious sticky roasted honey glaze coating from oven roasting
Boiling a Gammon Joint is quicker than roasting alone and gives moister Gammon slices.
However, to give the glaze the best finish, it needs a little time to roast in the oven.
Gammon boiled in a pan or a pressure cooker then coated in a delicious sticky glaze to finish off in the oven.
How to boil gammon?
When boiling gammon you need to cover it with water, you can add herbs, peppercorns, onion or vegetables can also be added to the boiling step if desired.
We love the taste of the ham as it is and to add flavour from the glaze instead! So we keep it simple with just a couple of bay leaves.
Make sure to submerge the gammon joint to cover over the top with water, if you lose water during cooking add more.
Also, it should be noted that although it's called boiled ham or gammon, it should not be boiled for the whole duration; simply bring it to the boil then lower it to a simmer.
How long to boil gammon joint per kg?
See below for a gammon joint cooking time calculator chart for how long to boil gammon joints of different sizes on the hob or using an instant pot, pressure cooker.
| Gammon joint size | How long to boil | How long to pressure cook |
|---|---|---|
| 1 kg (2.2lb) | 45 minutes | 25 minutes |
| 2 kg (4.4lb) | 1 hours 30 minutes | 50 minutes |
| 3 kg (6.6lb) | 2 hour 15 minutes | 1 hours 15 minutes |
| 4 kg (8.8lb) | 3 hours | 1 hours 40 minutes |
| 5 kg (11lb) | 3 hours 45 minutes | 2 hours 5 minutes |
So now you know how long to boil gammon, no matter the joint size. Time to turn this simple boiled ham into a honey glazed roast gammon
The roasting time for boiled gammon is 30 minutes, this cooking time is the same for all boiled gammon joint sizes.
The gammon is cooked already you are just roasting the fat layer and adding a delicious glaze.
Pressure Cooker Gammon Method
To speed things up, you can use an instant pot or pressure cooker to cook the gammon Joint. No checking in on it, leave it for the allotted time.
If you haven't got a Pressure Cooker, I highly recommend the Pressure King Pro, we have had ours for 3 years now and use it every week!
You will see below in the recipe card both instructions for how to pressure cook gammon using a pressure king pro or instant pot, or how to pan boil the gammon!
Removing skin from Gammon?
After the gammon has boiled, it is best to remove the thick skin, leaving the fat layer intact.
The gammon fat will be super soft and ready for scouring in a diamond pattern; we then added cloves for extra flavour!
In all honesty, we went a bit OTT with cloves here but wanted it to look even and well covered for the photo! You can use half the amount we used!
Honey and mustard glaze
A simple glaze for roast gammon is this honey and mustard glaze, it is easy to make with equal amounts of runny clear honey and English mustard.
You could try out our Sticky Beer and Honey Glaze instead for another option.
Pour your chosen glaze over the top of the gammon joint, making sure to save some to add again halfway through roasting.
I also highly recommend adding a layer of foil under the gammon joint as the honey is hard to clean off the baking tray!
How long to cook glazed gammon in oven?
Oven roast glazed gammon in a preheated oven at 180°c fan / 200°c / 400°f for 30 minutes; halfway through add more glaze to the top.
When finished remove from oven and cover loosely with foil, allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving.
You have got to agree that it is quite a masterpiece roast dinner to bring to the Christmas dinner table!
There is enough to serve 8 people with a 2kg gammon joint.
Gammon Serving Suggestions
A roast gammon is obviously great served for a traditional Sunday roast dinner served with roast potatoes and roasted parsnips, apple sauce and yorkshire puddings as seen below.
Honey roast gammon is also great served with any of the below.
- Gammon, Egg and Chips
- Cold meats or Cheese platter
- Sandwich
- Gammon, Mash & Cabbage
- Gammon Salad
Or chop gammon into cubes for adding to
- Rice
- Pasta Bake
- Quiche
- Omelette
- Turkey and ham pie
📖 Step by Step Recipe
Honey Roast Gammon Joint
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 kg Gammon/Ham Joint (4 ½ lb) - unsmoked/ smoked - personal preference
- 500 ml Water (2 cup)
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 12 cloves
Honey & Mustard Glaze
- 4 tablespoon Honey
- 4 tablespoon English Mustard
Or Beer and Honey Glaze option (click through)
Instructions
- Soak the 2 kg Gammon/Ham Joint (4 ½ lb) for a few hours in cold water, we normally do it overnight, or if you don't have time, rinse under cold water a few times to wash away excess saltiness.
Pan Boiled Gammon
- Place in a deep pan, fat side up, and fill the pan with enough water to cover the gammon joint.Add 2 Bay Leaves and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to a simmer and leave to cook uncovered for 1 ½ hours. Top up with more water if gammon is sticking out of the water?
- Mix together the glaze ingredients 4 tablespoon Honey and 4 tablespoon English Mustard .
- After 1 ½ hours, remove from pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Remove netting from the boiled gammon joint.
- Remove the skin/rind away from the gammon leaving a juicy layer of fat
- Score the fat layer of the gammon with a sharp knife into diamonds
- Push 12 cloves into the corners of each diamond.
- Cover a baking tray with foil, before adding gammon joint on top.Pour most of the honey and mustard glaze over the top and save a little to reglaze halfway through oven cooking.
- Place in preheated oven at 180°c fan / 200°c / 400°f for 15 minutes.
- Reglaze by brushing over remaining honey and mustard glaze.
- Cook for a final 15 minutes keep an eye on it and remove sooner if the honey glaze begins burning. Cover with loosely with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving
- Carve slices of gammon to your desired thickness.
- Serve with your choice of sides.
Pressure cooker method boiled ham
- Drain the water and place the 2 kg Gammon/Ham Joint (4 ½ lb) fat side facing up in the pressure cooker potAdd the 2 Bay Leaves and pour 500 ml Water (2 cup) over the top, it will not cover the gammon, which is fine, it will cook in the steam.
- Close the lid, pressure valve turned to the closed position.Place the pressure cooker on meat setting for 50 minutes.
- Once the Pressure cooker is finished, allow 10 min natural release. Carefully remove the meat from Pressure cooker.Follow from step 3 above, to oven roast the pressure cooked gammon
Video
Notes
Pan Method
Bring to boil, then simmer for 45 min Per Kg / 20min per lb The following joint sizes on the hob, simmer for time indicated below, and 30 min in oven to crisp off.- 1kg - 45 min
- 2kg - 1hr 30 min
- 3kg - 2hr 15 min
- 4kg - 3hr
- 5kg - 3hr 45min
Pressure Cooker Method-
Pressure cook for 25 min Per Kg / 11 min per lb. Allow 10-minute natural release on all joint size. The following joint sizes in pressure cooker take time indicated below, plus 10 min natural release and 30 min in oven to crisp off.- 1kg - 25 min
- 2kg - 50 min
- 3kg - 1hr 15 min
- 4kg - 1hr 40 min
- 5kg - 2hr 5min
Nutrition
This post was originally published on 10/12/2019 and has been modified on 21/04/2023 with updated recipe card and serving suggestions.
Plus simplified roast gammon cooking time calculator with times per kg. How to make honey roast gammon joint with a simple honey and mustard glaze.
Frequently Asked Questions?
Most store bought gammon joints in the UK are ok to use straight away, I normally soak for a few hours to remove some of the saltiness. If buying from the butchers ask if it will need soaking first, it depends how they have cured it?
Yes, keep netting on when boiling to keep it together, and remove before removing skin to roast.
The tough gammon skin should be removed, leaving behind a layer of fat which soaks up the glaze and becomes crispy when oven baked. 
Always makes an appearance at our Christmas table! A firm family favourite. Also great for boxing day when we like to pig out on cold meats and cheeses!
More Roast Dinner Recipes
We have loads of roast dinners to inspire your next Sunday roast, from cheap joints of beef topside or slow roast silverside.
To more luxury prime rib roast beef. Delicious roast goose with stuffing, slow roast leg of lamb or lamb shoulder.
If you like pork, try our roasted pork belly another affordable roasting joint.
Hope you enjoyed this honey gammon roast joint recipe and found it easy to follow? Please spare some time to leave us a comment/review below.
Jenny says
Easy recipe to follow
MRS S Mckay says
Very easy to follow recipe and advice. Have to remind myself every Christmas and this was so helpful.
Luke and Kay says
Thank you for your lovely review, Mrs McKay. We are so happy to hear that our Honey Roast Gammon Joint recipe was helpful to you and that you found it easy to follow. It's always a joy for us to know that our customers are enjoying their holiday meals with the help of our recipes. Thank you again for choosing our recipe and we look forward to being a part of your next Christmas meal! Happy holidays from Luke and Kay 🙂
Nicole Bescoby says
Saved this recipe to use for Christmas Dinner this year. My family will be surprised and impressed 😂😋
Luke and Kay says
Thank you for sharing your experience with our Honey Roast Gammon Joint, Nic! We are so glad to hear you enjoyed it and were inspired to share it with your family. We know Christmas dinner can be a special time of togetherness and love, and we hope your family enjoys their dinner. Wishing you all a very merry holiday! 🙂
Debbie says
Followed this recipe for Boxing Day sandwiches and it turned out fantastically well, with compliments from everyone!
As I hadn’t prepared the ingredients in advance and didn’t have any cloves to hand, I improvised with slices of orange instead, inserting them into the scored fat.
The oranges tasted really good with the gammon, although I will make sure to source all the ingredients in advance next time so that I may try the original recipe!
Thank you so much for this.
Kay says
Thank you for trying our Honey Roast Gammon Joint recipe, Debbie! I'm glad to hear that it turned out fantastically well and that everyone enjoyed it.
I'm sorry to hear that you didn't have any cloves on hand to use in the recipe, but I'm glad to hear that you improvised with slices of orange instead. The oranges tasted great with the gammon and I'm sure next time you'll be able to try the original recipe using all of the ingredients.
Thank you again for trying our recipe and for your kind words. 🙂
Debbie says
Followed this recipe for Boxing Day sandwiches and it turned out fantastically well, with compliments from everyone!
As I hadn’t prepared the ingredients in advance and didn’t have any cloves to hand, I improvised with slices of orange instead, inserting them into the scored fat.
The oranges tasted really good with the gammon, although I will source the ingredients in advance next time so that I may try the original recipe!
Thank you so much for this.
Shaun says
Pretty much the perfect ham recipe. The only change I made was soaking the joint overnight because I'm not keen on salt. Changed the water once, second soak I added some aromatics but the final boil was au naturel like yourselves, great flavour. I had one dinner and a sandwich, her indoors polished the rest off!
Kay says
Thank you for trying our Honey Roast Gammon Joint, Shaun! We're glad to hear you enjoyed it and that you found the recipe easy to follow. It sounds like you made some great modifications and got the perfect flavour profile for your taste buds. We hope you'll give us a try again in the future.
Steve Harvey says
As a question, can you use leg of pork instead of gammon?
I live in the USA and it’s difficult to get gammon here. So I figured that a leg of pork would do just as well.
Tina Lamb says
Followed the instructions to boil and roast the joint. Was very impressed with both the taste and how moist the gammon was. The glaze was good too.
Kay says
Thank you, Tina, for the great review 🙂
So glad your Gammon's joint came out great, and you liked the glaze also 😉
Hazel says
Hi it looks fantastic but can I slow cook in a multi cook ninja
Kay says
Hi Hazel, you can find this link will help you with slow cooking gammon Slow Cooker Gammon Joint (Ham / Boiled Bacon) hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂
Marie says
It looks delicious. Very good instructions and very simple. I will try this method.
I would like to use my tower precision cooker but I don't understand the use of another pot inside and how much water do I need for a 2kg gammon.
Susan Morley says
Brilliant to have all the alternative instructions and timings for pan and pressure cooking all together, I have mine in the pressure cooker now, and will roast with the honey and mustard glaze later, can't wait to taste!
Thank you 😁
Kay says
Glad our gammon joint recipe has been helpful to you Susan. Hope you enjoyed your gammon as much as we did this year!
Sally says
Hi many thanks for the cooking times.
We have a ham every Christmas and I always cook it on Christmas Eve. Every year I have to search the internet for cooking times. This year I bought a notebook for cooking tips and this will be the very first entry.
We wish you a very merry Christmas and hope the New Year brings you everything you wish for.
Kay says
Hi Sally,
Glad you found our Gammon Roast Joint cooking times so helpful, very excited to be your first entry in your cooking tips book. Hope some more of our recipes will take your fancy too!
Hope you and your family had a fantastic Christmas day and a very Happy New year to you!
Thanks again,
Kay & Luke
Denise Edwards says
Thanks. Seems easy enough. Following recipe later today. Merry Christmas
Jenny Johnson says
This sounds delicious! I would like to cook this the day before as we have church Christmas morning so rushed and no pressure cooker and we celebrate at lunch. Do you think it would work to do the simmering the day before, cool, put in the fridge and then heat Christmas day adding the glaze. Thinking it would need a bit longer than the 30 minutes as coming from the fridge cold. Any thoughts?
Luke says
Hi Jenny,
Yes, boiling the gammon joint the day before will work, prepare it up to step 5, scoring gammon fat.
To finish the gammon in the oven the next day from chilled I would first warm it in the oven without the cloves and glaze and cover with foil at 180°c fan / 200°c / 400°f for 20 minutes.
Then remove foil and add a few cloves and the glaze.
Continue cooking the glazed gammon uncovered at the same temperature for 15 minutes then reglaze and finish for another 15 minutes, keeping an eye on it and add foil if browning to much.
Wishing you and your family a fabulous Christmas Day.
Luke & Kay
PS. We are making ours today too!
Andrew Evans says
This is how i cook my gammon joint, however, i also pre-boil my joint in coke first, bring to boil and then drain, repeat and then carry on as per recipe though i only add honey as the glaze as not everyone likes mustard.
Kay says
Thank you, Andrew for the comment and review 🙂
We have cooked gammon in coke before, and the kids loved it 😉
I hope you enjoyed your glazed gammon; enjoy!!
Liz says
This is my dad's favorite type of meat but I think it's called something different here in the US. I'ms end this recipe to my mom!
Allyssa says
This is perfection! It taste really amazing and I can say that I highly recommend this one! Thank you so much for sharing this! Super helpful and Job well done!