Sweet Valencia Honey Glazed Gammon

Gammon is a meat that many of us will eat as a treat, sometimes from a restaurant menu or cooked at home for a special meal. If you like gammon as much as we do then there's no reason why you shouldn't treat yourself a little more often! A small joint can be bought from the supermarket for around £5 and represents good value compared to pre-cut gammon steaks. There's plenty to feed a family of four as part of a roast dinner with some potatoes and vegetables. Alternatively it's absolutely delicious cut into thick slices and serve with egg and chips. If there's any left over, gammon also makes a fantastic sandwich meat too!

Our gammon recipe features a delicious glaze that uses our Valencia orange honey and pineapple juice to create a sweet and fruity contrast to the savoury meat.

Notes: This recipe is for a small joint that weighs around 1kg, a size commonly found in supermarkets. If you are thinking of cooking a larger joint from the butchers for Christmas then check the notes at the end. It's very easy to adjust the cooking times and recipe for any sized gammon joint.

You might usually pick a joint with as little fat as possible but for this recipe we recommend choosing a joint with a nice layer of fat, once roasted with the glaze that fat might just be the best part!

You will need:

• A small gammon joint (around 1kg)
• 125g of Just Bee Valencia Orange Honey
• 300ml of pineapple juice
• ½ tsp of chilli flakes
• 2 tbsp of light brown sugar
• 2 tsp of cornflour

• A large pot with lid
• A medium sized saucepan
• A baking tray

Step one: Boiling the gammon.

First fill a large pot or pan with enough cold water to completely cover the gammon, then put the lid on and bring to the boil. Keep the netting on the joint while you boil the gammon, don't worry as we'll be removing that later when we get to the roasting stage. Once the water is boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook the meat for 45 minutes.

For extra flavour you can add peppercorns, herbs, bay leaves, an onion or other vegetables to the water if you wish, though this is completely optional and really down to your personal taste. If in doubt- leave it out! We do not recommend adding salt as gammon joints can be quite salty already.

I usually like to keep it simple with just a few peppercorns or sometimes a few fresh herbs if I have some handy growing in the garden but if you don't have them it's really not worth worrying about- there will be plenty of flavour in the gammon by the time we've finished!

(Top Tip) If the water level starts to fall below the top of the gammon during this process then top up with hot water from a kettle as needed.

Step two: Making the glaze.

While the gammon is simmering away to juicy perfection we can use that time to make the glaze.

Add the pineapple juice, honey and sugar to a medium sized pan and bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for around 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. By this time it will be starting to reduce and thicken.

In a cup add 2 teaspoons of water to the 2 teaspoons of cornflour, mix together then add to the pan and whisk in. Finally add the chilli flakes. (These can be left out if you prefer).

Bring to the boil again and keep stirring until the glaze is sticky and thick. This might take another 10 minutes or so, when you are happy turn off the heat and leave aside.

Step three: Put the oven on!

When the gammon has about 5 minutes left, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6 or 200c (180c in fan assisted oven).

Step four: Roasting and glazing.

Once the gammon has been cooking for 45 minutes, drain the water and put the gammon on the baking tray. If you like, you can put some baking foil underneath to aid clean up later. While on the tray remove the netting from the joint by cutting it with some kitchen scissors.

Get a sharp knife and run it under the skin to remove it leaving just the fatty layer under the skin, it will be very soft after boiling so this should be quite easy. Once the skin is removed, drag the knife gently over the fat to score it in a criss-cross pattern, this will help it roast nicely and help the glaze seep into the fat.

Take your glaze and start spooning it onto the gammon, while in the oven the glaze will become runnier and gravity will pull it down quite quickly so concentrate on the top fatty part and get a good thick coating on that. Feel free to smear a little around the sides though too if you like. Keep half of the glaze back for a second coating later!

Roast in the centre of the oven for 15 minutes.

Remove the gammon from the oven and spoon over the rest of the glaze making sure the whole gammon is covered this time, whatever is left in the pan just scoop up and add to the top!

Then return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on your gammon for this last part, we want the fat nice and roasted but if the glaze starts to burn you'll want to take it out. I don't mind if the glaze is a little 'barbecue looking' at the edges, but you don't want to over do it or it will ruin the flavours in the glaze.

Once ready, remove from the oven and leave to rest for a few minutes before carving.

To cook a larger gammon.

If you wish to cook a bigger gammon joint then the simple rule is to boil for 45 minutes per kg. So a 2kg joint would take 1 hour 30 min, a 3kg joint would take 2 hours 15 minutes and so on.  The roasting time stays approximately the same (30 minutes) no matter what size of joint.

The ingredients to make the glaze will be enough for a joint up to 2kg but for a 3-4kg joint we recommend adding 50% more to all the glaze ingredients to make sure you get nice thick coverage. For a very large joint (5+ kg) we would recommend doubling all the ingredients.