Slow Cooker Gammon Joint {Easiest Recipe Ever}
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This slow cooker gammon joint gives you incredibly tender, juicy meat with almost zero effort – just add everything to the slow cooker and let it do the work. I finish it with a sticky honey mustard glaze that you can leave saucy and gooey, or blast in the oven for a caramelised crust. It’s brilliant hot or cold, and honestly one of the easiest things you can cook for a crowd. If you’re too short on time to make gammon in slow cooker, my air fryer gammon joint offers a quicker alternative!
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- ✅ Recipe Name: Slow Cooker Gammon Joint {Easiest Recipe Ever}
- 🕦 Ready in: 4 hours 5 minutes
- 🤝 Serves: 6
- 🍴 Calories: 644kcal
- 🧑🍳 Main ingredients: gammon joint, cola, wholegrain mustard, honey
- ✨ Summary: The easiest slow cooker gammon joint – tender juicy meat cooked in cola with a sticky honey mustard glaze. Hot or cold, it never disappoints!
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Barely any prep & eat it hot or cold: Chop a couple of veg, toss everything into the slow cooker and walk away. Once you’ve cooked gammon in the slow cooker this way, you’ll never bother with any other method. The meat always comes out so tender!
- Easy holiday crowd pleaser: This slow cooker ham is brilliant for festive occasions. Pair it with my sausage meat stuffing, brussel sprouts with bacon and air fryer roast potatoes for Christmas or Sunday dinners.
- Great for a tight budget: This slow cooker gammon joint comes in at around £12 total, not including store cupboard staples like honey and spices.
Try these other protein-forward recipes during the week: The BEST Crispy Bone-in Chicken Thighs, The BEST Crispy Chicken Wrap and Chicken Goujons.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- Gammon joint: You can use smoked or unsmoked gammon for this slow cooker gammon recipe. Either would pair perfectly with some Boulangere potatoes.
- Braising liquid: There are quite a few options for braising liquid for your slow cooked gammon, from Cola to water and vinegar. Below, you’ll find details on each option.
- Aromatics: My recipe calls for onion, garlic, and cinnamon to provide flavour to the gammon. However, you can also use options like peppercorns, cloves, and ginger root for a bolder taste when making your gammon joint in the slow cooker. Consider serving it with Braised red cabbage for the most delicious meal!
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations/ Adaptations
- Glaze options: If you’re not a fan of honey mustard, gammon works well with options like maple and brown sugar, orange and clove, and spiced apricot glaze. Something sweeter would pair perfectly with Creamed Cabbage.
- Slow cooker and oven: I recommend using the slow cooker or oven for gammon, as it helps keep things moist inside. These cooking methods also create a nice crisp glaze on the outside. If you don’t want to turn your oven on, you can air fry to crisp up the outer layer. I would reduce the timings slightly, air frying for 30 minutes at 180°C in total rather than 40 minutes.
- Substitute the coke: Use water or cider if you don’t fancy cooking the slow cooker gammon with coke. Creamy Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup would be great served with a milder gammon.
How to make slow cooker gammon
- Start by adding your gammon joint to your slow cooker. Add the onion, carrots, cola/coke, garlic granules and ground cinnamon. Gently stir to combine and cover with the lid (Image 1).
- Slow cook for 6 to 7 hours on low or 4 to 5 hours on high (Image 2).
3. Add the wholegrain mustard, honey, brown sugar and rice wine vinegar to a small bowl (Image 3).
4. Mix together the ingredients for the glaze with a fork or spoon (Image 4).
Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 180°C FAN/ 200°C conventional.
5. When the ham has cooked, use two spatulas to remove the ham from your slow cooker and drain the juices (Image 5).
6. Place on a foil lined baking tray. Discard the string wrapped around the ham and remove the outside layer (rind) from the ham, leaving a layer of fat over the ham (Image 6).
7. Score the fat with a knife, then coat the ham evenly with half of the glaze, using an oil brush or your hands. To prevent the sides from drying out, lift the foil to cover the sides of the ham, leaving the fat exposed (Image 7).
8. Pop in the oven for 20 minutes, then remove and coat with another final layer of the glaze. Add back in the oven for another 20 minutes, before removing and leaving to rest for 20 minutes. Carve the ham before serving rving or refrigerate to serve cold (Image 8).
Here are a few other hearty, comforting pasta meals for you to try: Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta, Easy Tomato Tuna Pasta Bake and Spicy Chicken Pasta Recipe.
Tips for the best results
- Since the gammon joint is the star of the show in this dish, it’s important to select a good-quality ham. Ensure you select a ham that has a good amount of fat, as this will add flavour and keep the roast juicy as it cooks. There should also not be a lot of liquid in the package with the gammon.
- While you can cook the gammon without liquid, it will be much juicier with liquid added. The amount of liquid you use will also change depending on your intention. Since water does not add flavour, you can use way less than Cola or juice.
- The internal temperature of this slow cooker gammon should be 75C when it’s ready. Test the temp by inserting a meat thermometer into the middle of the thickest part of the gammon.
- The slow cooker ham joint, aromatics, and glaze leave behind a delicious liquid you can use as a base for soups. Don’t toss it out. Instead, allow the liquid to cool fully. Then, put it in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge or freezer.
How long to slow cook a gammon joint
For a 1.5-2kg joint, cook on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. The most reliable way to check it’s ready is a meat thermometer – you’re looking for 75°C/160°F at the thickest part. No thermometer? Slide a sharp knife into the centre of the slow cooker gammon and it should go in and come out with no resistance at all.
Do I have to use a liquid to cook gammon in the slow cooker?
No, you don’t need to add a liquid to cook gammon as it will turn out moist enough with the glaze and other ingredients.
I’ve used cola, water and apple juice over the years when making slow cooker gammon recipes, and they all give slightly different results. Cola is brilliant for a subtle sweetness and helps tenderise the meat. Apple juice (or cider) gives a more rounded, complex flavour. Water is fine if it’s all you’ve got, just use less (around 200ml) since it doesn’t bring any flavour of its own.
The glaze is the other thing worth getting right. You don’t have to glaze slow cooker gammon, but it makes such a big difference. That sticky, caramelised honey mustard crust is what takes it from a simple slow cooked joint to something way more special. I add it in two stages during the oven finish, about 20 minutes apart, and it makes a huge difference to the depth of flavour. This is the best way to cook gammon joint, in my opinion.
Serving Suggestions
This delicious glazed slow cooker gammon pairs well with various sides including salads, potatoes, roast veg, pasta, etc. When considering what to cook as sides with this ham, you can always fall back on holiday dishes like green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, etc.
Try it with:
Leftover Storage and Reheat Instructions
Refrigerate: Store leftover gammon in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
Freeze: I like to pre-slice before freezing in an airtight container or ziplock bag to save storage space. Freeze the slow cooker gammon for up to 4 days.
Reheat: you can add the sliced cold ham into your dish during the final stage of cook time to heat up naturally, or you can heat in the microwave for 30-second increments with a little splash of water to prevent it from drying out. My fave way to eat leftovers? Cold!
FAQs
You don’t need to, but if you’re using smoked gammon and want to reduce the saltiness, a 1-2 hour soak in cold water beforehand does help.
You must consider its weight when learning how to cook gammon joint in a slow cooker. Generally, it will take about 1.5 hours per 450g of gammon (plus 20 minutes).
Yes, you should always remove the plastic before cooking the ham. If you leave it on, there’s a chance the plastic will melt onto the ham (especially in the oven).
It’s hard to overcook gammon in the slow cooker, especially if you keep it on the low setting. If you’re unsure whether you can take the gammon out after 4-5 hours on the high setting due to your schedule, let it cook on the low setting instead.
Yes, straight from the fridge is absolutely fine. It might need an extra 15-20 minutes, but it won’t affect the flavour or texture at all.
Though they both come from the same area of the pig (the back legs), there are a few differences between a gammon and a ham joint. Gammon is sold raw and cured (like bacon), while ham is sold cooked (and sometimes dry-cured). You’ll need to cook gammon (like in this slow cooker gammon recipe) before you can eat it. To put it simply, gammon is the uncooked version of ham.
Cola is a great shout because it adds subtle sweetness and really helps tenderise the meat when you slow cook gammon. Apple juice or cider gives a more rounded flavour. Water works too, just use around 200ml as it doesn’t add flavour the way juices do.
Love slow cooker recipes? Try out my Slow cooker beef curry, Slow cooker chilli con carne, Chorizo and butter bean stew, Tender Braising Steak with Gravy, or Spanish Chicken & Chorizo Stew.
If you tried this Slow Cooker Gammon Joint recipe, it would mean so much to me if you couldleave a review & a star rating to let me know how you found it! I love hearing about your experiences – it motivates me to keep creating more and more recipes for you guys 💛 Let’s get cooking! – Mimi x
Slow Cooker Gammon Joint (with Honey & Mustard Glaze)
Ingredients
- 1.7 kilo unsmoked gammon joint (£10.10)
- 1 large carrots, peeled and sliced into chunks (£0.10)
- 1 large onion, peeled and sliced into wedges (£0.15)
- 2 litres of cola/coke (not diet) (£0.70)
- 1 tsp garlic granules
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
For glaze (finish in oven 30 mins at end)
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar/ demerara sugar
Method
- Start by adding your gammon joint to your slow cooker. Add the onion, carrots, cola/coke, garlic granules and ground cinnamon. Gently stir to combine and cover with the lid. Slow cook for 6 to 7 hours on low or 4 to 5 hours on high.
- After this time, use two spatulas to remove the ham from your slow cooker and place on a foil lined baking tray.
Preheat your oven to 180°C FAN/ 200°C conventional/350°F
- Combine the ingredients for the glaze with a fork x whisk. Discard the string wrapped around the ham and remove the outside layer (rind) from the ham, leaving a layer of fat over the ham.
- Score the fat with a knife, then coat the ham evenly with half of the glaze, using an oil brush or your hands. To prevent the sides from drying out, lift the foil to cover the sides of the ham, leaving the fat exposed.
- Pop in the oven for 20 minutes, then remove and coat with another final layer of the glaze. Add back in the oven for another 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 20 minutes before carving or adding into the fridge to serve cold.
Notes
- Choose a high-quality gammon joint with ample fat for flavour and juiciness.
- Adjust the amount of liquid in the slow cooker for desired moisture; when using Cola or juices.
- Use a meat thermometer to ensure the gammon reaches an internal temperature of 75°C/160°F to avoid overcooking.
Nutrition
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