Cooksister | Food, Travel, Photography

Food, photos & faraway places

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • About me
    • Contact me
    • Work with me
    • Legal
      • Copyright notice & Disclaimer
      • Disclosure
      • Cookies and Privacy Policy
    • Press and media
    • Cooksister FAQs
  • RECIPES
    • Recipe Index – by course
    • Baking (savoury)
    • Braai/Barbecue
    • Breakfast & brunch
    • Christmas
    • Dessert
    • Drinks
    • Eggs
    • Fish
    • Gluten-free
    • Leftovers
    • Pasta & rice
    • Poultry
    • Pulses
    • Salads
    • Soup
    • South African
    • Starters & light meals
    • Vegan
    • Vegetables
    • Vegetarian
  • RESTAURANTS
    • British Isles restaurants
    • Dubai restaurants
    • France restaurants
    • London restaurants
    • Montenegro restaurants
    • New York restaurants
    • Pop-ups and supperclubs
    • Serbia restaurants
    • Singapore restaurants
    • South Africa restaurants
    • Sweden restaurants
    • Switzerland restaurants
    • USA restaurants
  • TRAVEL
    • All my travel posts
      • Austria
      • Belgium
      • Canada
      • Dubai
      • Cruise ships
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Grenada
      • Hong Kong
      • Hotel reviews
      • Italy
      • Israel
      • Jersey
      • Mexico
      • Netherlands
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Singapore
      • Ski & snow
      • South Africa
      • Spain
      • Sweden
      • Switzerland
      • UK
      • USA
      • Wales
  • PORTFOLIO
    • Freelance writing portfolio
    • Speaking and teaching
    • Photography portfolio
    • Buy my photos
You are here: Home / Recipes / Christmas / Roast gammon for Christmas

Roast gammon for Christmas

by Jeanne Horak on January 11, 2006 8 Comments in Christmas, Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Low-carb, Main course - meat

Roast Christmas gammon © J Horak-Druiff 2010

Well, it seems Christmas has come and gone and (shockingly, yet unsurprisingly) I have not yet blogged about our meal for Christmas 2005… or 2004.  And now that I’m way late for both of them, it seems rather irrelevant when I actually get round to it!! In fact, maybe that’s a plan – we’ll do them side by side as they will make a great contrast as to how a South African Christmas differs from an English one!

That’s a question that people never seem to tire of asking us South Africans:  “So what do you guys do to celebrate Christmas?”.  Here’s a hint, people – we were a British colony for over a century… You don’t think there might be a few, erm, familiar features??  Despite the dramatic difference in temperatures, we still have European-style Christmas decorations everywhere – plastic mistletoe, fake snow on shop windows, great big evergreen Christmas trees, Boney-M singing “Mary’s Boy Child” booming out from every PA system… 😉  And for many of my school friends, the traditional Christmas lunch was a hot meal of turkey and trimmings.  Having said that, large portions of the country are not of British stock and therfore do not feel bound to sweat their way through a turkey dinner while the swimming pool beckons outside.  My family falls squarely into the latter category.

We always celebrated Christmas at home.  I think I can count on the fingers of one hand the Christmases we spent away from home, up until my mom died two years ago:  three!  Once I was in London, once we went to my sister-in-law’s and once my dad had the truly insane idea of taking a cruise on the ill-fated Achille Lauro cruise ship, which deserves a whole post to itself – another time, perhaps.  But for the rest, there was an absolutely fixed ritual to Christmas.  On the 24th, my mom would retrieve from the fridge the gammon that she had selected for that year’s feast and put it in the oven for what to me seemed like an eternity.  The entire house be redolent with the mouth-watering smell of slowly cooking smoked pork and to me, that would always signal the start of Christmas celebrations.  The night of the 24th we (my parents, my brother and I) would all go out to dinner.  For most of my childhood we went to the same restaurant, La Fontaine – the kind of place where the maitre d’ always greets you by name, where there is a pianist tinkling away softly in a corner, and the ladies are each offered a flower when they arrive).  The menu would today be considered a 70s retro revival – seafood cocktail, chateaubriand, crepes suzette…but at the time it seemed to me to be the height of sophistication.  And before the meal, you would get not breadrolls, but slices of home-made melba toast and little butter balls! Class. Anyway, after an evening there, we would clamour for my father to drive us downtown to see the Christmas lights and from there, home to put out a mince pie and a glass of port for Father Christmas (or Vader Kersfees, as he is called in Afrikaans).

Christmas morning my brother and I were always up at the crack of dawn and racing to the Christmas tree before we were even properly awake.  But the only things we were allowed to open then were our lucky packets.  Any other South Africans remember those?  CNA used to sell them and they were basically like a giant Christmas cracker, full of cheapish toys that would keep small kids amused long enough to keep them off the wrapped presents until Mom and Dad woke up.  8 a.m. was the watershed.  That was when we were allowed to take the pillowcase (yes, you read right, we each got a pillowcase, not a measly stocking…!) of gifts from Father Christmas through to our parents’ room and wake them up so that they could watch us slowly extract each gift.  Once that was done, we all had to get dressed and my parents would annoyingly insist that we all had to sit at the table and have tea and mince pies before finally heading for the tree and it’s treasure trove of gifts.  And only after I had handed round all the presents (for that was my self-appointed role!!) and everything had been opened and thoroughly inspected, could we move on to the next stage:  the feast!

 

Raw pork gammon roast

 

We had the same Christmas lunch, with a few variations in the starter and dessert departments, pretty much my whole life.  After the gift-opening, my mom would head for the kitchen and remove from the fridge the enormous glazed gammon.  Then I would help her decorate it with whole cloves, pineapple rings and glace cherries and it would be surrounded by salads which also remained pretty constant through the years:  asparagus, potato salad, watermelon balls, and melon & grape salad.  Once my brother met his future wife, she added another component that was to become a fixture: her 7-layer salad.  The starter varied – chicken liver pate, smoked salmon in some form, or a plate of antipasti.  But always cold.  And of course, then came the main event.  First my dad would open the champagne, shooting the cork right into the garden (where my brother would always be waiting to catch it!) and then he would get down to the serious business of carving the cold gammon.  I remember the Christmas gammon being one of the tastiest things in the world.  I loved the saltiness of the meat, the sweet stickiness of the glaze and the yielding, delicious layer of fat.  Of course, afterwards there was always dessert – usually Christmas pudding with my mom’s home-made brandy sauce.  But to me, the gammon was the thing; that was the taste of Christmas and I doubt whether that will ever change.  When my mom died in late 2003, she had already selected the gammon for a Christmas meal that she would not live to see.  I found it in the freezer that Christmas when I went home and that was the first gammon I cooked, as a tribute to my mom and as a source of comfort to myself.  I realised then how many things I had never got round to aslking my mother – like how do you roast a gammon??  What the hell goes into the glaze??  How do you get the fat just right?  So many questions, but no Mamma to ask.  I think that’s one of the first times I realised how irretrievably gone she was.  But with the help of the internet, plus a glaze recipe from Bronwyn’s mom, I tackled the gammon like an old pro and learned (surprisingly) that it’s not that difficult, and it certainly made me feel Christmassy.

So even though I knew we would be going out to relatives on Christmas Day this year, I was determined to roast a gammon at some stage over the festive season.  We had invited some friends over for lunch in mid-December and I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity.  At first I was going to buy two small boneless gammons that I knew would easily fit into our teensy oven, but then Nick decided that you got more for your money by buying one HUGE bone-in gammon and before I knew it we were headed home with half a pig.  Half a big pig.  More on that later.

For any of you who are intimidated by the thought of cooking such a huge chunk of meat, fear not – here comes the idiot’s guide.  I also used to fear this kind of cooking: what if I didn’t know the One Crucial Thing you needed to do a successful roast?  Such a lot of meat to mess up if things went wrong!!  But even though my mom never went through the basics of gammon roasting with me, she did tell me a thing or two about roasting chickens, and when you get down to it, the principles she taught me will stand you in good stead whatever you roast:

  1. don’t be in a rush, and
  2. take steps to make sure the meat cannot dry out.

In other words, all you really have to do to a gammon is stick it in the oven with some liquid, for a long time at a relatively low temperature, make sure it is covered, and wait!  What could be easier – or more rewarding?

Back in South Africa where Christmas falls in the height of summer, we would always serve the gammon cold and without  gravy (but with fetching decorative glacé cherries and tinned pineapple rings!).  However, in the cold English weather, you somehow feel that some sort of gravy would be appropriate.  Due to the saltiness of the meat I wanted something sweeter than traditional gravy – and I figured that I could adapt the yummy recipe I’d tried last winter for gammon steaks with a whisky sauce. The sweetness of this sauce works really well with the salty gammon and the whisky adds a grown-up bite.

From the picture, you will see that I served the gammon with glazed carrots and my favourite sweet potato wedges (just tossed in olive oil & rosemary and roasted at 180C until the edges are golden brown).  And sitting there at the table I decided that the notion of having roast gammon only at Christmas was silly.  In fact, I have resolved to make it even when only Nick and I are at home (you get some adorable little gammons that cut into about 8 slices – perfect!).  Not only because I love the taste, but for the memories it always awakens.

Looking for more festive recipes? Here are 35 tried and tested Cooksister Christmas recipes, from cocktails and canapes through to desserts! 

 

Plat of roast gammon and vegetables

 

GLAZED GAMMON WITH A WHISKY SAUCE

Ingredients:

1 large gammon (bone in or out – it’s your choice)

2 carrots, sliced

2 celery sticks, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

2 bay leaves

about 6 black peppercorns

FOR THE GLAZE:

3/4 cup tightly packed brown sugar

1-2 Tbsp cider vinegar

1-2 tsp wholegrain mustard

pinch of ground cloves (optional)

FOR THE WHISKY SAUCE:

4 Tbsp finely chopped onions

2 Tbsp brown sugar (I used light Muscovado)

25ml whisky

3 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp flour

1 to 1/2 cups of stock (chicken or vegetable)

salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Rinse the gammon and pat dry.  Place it in a large roasting dish (preferably a deep one  with a lid).  Slice/chop the carrots, celery and onion and place them in the roasting pan together with the gammon.  Add 1 to 1.5l water to the pan, depending on how deep your pan is.

[I, on the other hand, only had one dish that was big enough to take this monster – the drip tray from the grill pan that came with the oven – and that is only about 1.5 inches deep.  Which is fine when you put the meat into the oven, but by the time it comes out, some fat and water have cooked out and increased the amoutn of liquid.  So as I slid the oven shelf forward to get a grip on the roasting dish, it tilted ever so slightly and… instantly, a cascade of boiling water and pork fat poured out onto the oven door, the base of the oven and the floor.  Oh excellent.  Just what you need as your guests are arriving – pork fat sowly congealing on the floor and the hosts screaming at each other as they try to clean the hot oven.  Merrrrryyyyy Christmas!!]

Anyhow.  If your roasting pan has a lid, cover it (alternatively cover the gammon with aluminium foil) and place in a 160C oven.  Cooking time is 30 mins for every 500g, plus an extra 30 mins.  I removed the gammon from the oven and allowed it to rest for 5 mintes while I made the glaze.

Heat all the glaze ingredients together in a pan until the sugar has completely dissolved (the quantities are kind of variable – I add more sugar if the glaze is too watery) I usually allow my glaze to boil for a minute, but as long as the sugar is dissolved, this isn’t necessary.

In the meanwhile, carefully peel the skin off the gammon.  Lift a corner and tug gently – you will see it comes off surprisingly easily.  Score the fat to create a diamond pattern – the pattern is a matter of personal choice, but the scoring helps the glaze to stay on the fat instead of just sliding off.

Baste the fat liberally with the glaze and return the gammon to the oven, uncovered.  Baste frequently until the glazed fat has browned nicely (it should take about 15-20 mins)- you can always use the grill to finish it off.

To make the sauce (which can be made in advance), gently fry the onions in the butter until soft.  Remove from the heat and stir in flour gradually.

Stir in the stock and return to heat.  Add the sugar and bring the sauce to boil, simmering for about 2 minutes and adding water/stock sauce is too thick.

Add the whisky, season to taste with salt and pepper (I sometimes find that I add more sugar at this point too) and serve.

Other spectacular roasts from fellow-bloggers include:

  • Val’s rustic pork roast
  • Bron’s lamb with quinoa, almond and apricot stuffing
  • Michelle’s ham in Coca-Cola

More deliciousness for you!

  • Brandy and Coke glazed gammon for a South African Christmas feastBrandy and Coke glazed gammon for a South African Christmas feast
  • The ghost of Christmas past – and that perfect roast gammon recipe againThe ghost of Christmas past – and that perfect roast gammon recipe again
  • Saturday Snapshots #105Saturday Snapshots #105
  • Nectarine & plum galette, and being rememberedNectarine & plum galette, and being remembered

Never miss a Cooksister post

If you enjoyed this post, enter your e-mail address here to receive a FREE e-mail update when a new post appears on Cooksister

I love comments almost as much as I love cheese - so if you can't leave me any cheese, please leave me a comment instead!

« What the papers are saying…
It’s the caterers I feel sorry for »

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Anna says

    January 12, 2006 at 7:21 pm

    Jean:
    Love the new 3-D effect and new typeface for Cooksister – much improved. But please, put me out of my misery and tell me what the ‘s’ is supposed to be?? Doesn’t look too appetising!
    Anna.

    Reply
  2. Jeanne says

    January 13, 2006 at 12:35 pm

    Why, the item in the middle of my logo is of course a koeksuster – my blog’s pastry namesake! And believe me, it’s VERY appetising, in the same syrupy vein as baklavas and such syrupy middle-Eastern treats. See the item in my sidebar about koeksusters for more info… Glad you like the new look!

    Reply
  3. Anna says

    January 13, 2006 at 4:30 pm

    Oh, yes I see – thanks! Is the koeksuster an all over South Africa thing? Would it be likely that my mom would have eaten them growing up in Durban?
    Anna.

    Reply
  4. Anna says

    January 13, 2006 at 4:41 pm

    PS. Jeanne, you were so right about the entries on Time Goes By: so incredibly moving. Yes, there is so much sheer talent around in blogdom.
    Anna.

    Reply
  5. Jeanne says

    January 17, 2006 at 2:40 pm

    Hi Anna
    Yes, koeksusters are eaten all over South Africa – even though Durban is often called the last outpost of the Empire & koeksusters were originally an Afrikaner snack 😉 Every cake sale woudl most definitely have them, so she is almost sure to have eaten them when growing up.
    Glad you took the time to head over to Time Goes By to read the series I mentioned. Ronni is immensely talented and writes so honestly about many issues that we sometimes choose to skirt. Required reading for anyone venturing into the blogosphere!

    Reply
  6. Tracey says

    January 23, 2006 at 9:39 am

    Hi Jeanne,
    Thanks for a great blog!
    Just wanted to say that in Afrikaans Father Christmas is actually Kers Vader. Vader Kerfees is more of a direct translation from Father Christmas but not really the term that is used.
    Picky I know.
    Looking forward to your next nibble on the world 🙂

    Reply
  7. Jeanne says

    January 23, 2006 at 6:40 pm

    Hi Tracey
    Oh dear – my mother (who had a lifelong aversion to “taalgoggas” and lazy use of language) caught out posthumously!! We always called him Vader Kersfees, and both my parents were dyed-in-the-wool Afrikaners. So I don’t know if it’s something my brother and I got wrong when we were very young and that’s just the way it stayed, or what… but we didn’t really care as long as the pillowcases were full of gifts! 😉
    Thanks for stopping by & hope to see you again!

    Reply
  8. JulsKitchen says

    December 23, 2010 at 9:03 am

    Just a quick jump here to wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year… this is a delicious gammon indeed! mmh, the whisky sauce!

    Reply
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Never miss a Cooksister post!

Get my latest recipes delivered by e-mail!

Search over 500 recipes

Recently on Cooksister

  • Perfect broccoli and Stilton soup [keto, low carb, GF]
  • Masalchi by Atul Kochhar – Indian street food in Wembley
  • Barbecued salmon with blood oranges and capers
  • Roasted Brussels sprouts with feta, pomegranate and pine nuts [GF, V]
  • Love Yourself healthy meal delivery [Review]
  • Antillean
  • Festive roast lamb with pomegranate glaze
  • Rustic blood orange and pistachio galettes

Archives by month

Archives by category

Popular posts

Peppermint Crisp fridge tart - a South African treat
Oxtail and red wine potjie
Nigella's Bakewell slices & the Big Bakewell Taste-off
Gem squash 101: how to find them, how to grow them, how to eat them!
Beef, broccoli and udon noodle stir fry from "The Japanese Larder" by Luiz Hara
Roosterkoek - a South African braai essential

Featured on

Also available on

The wonderful Museum of the Moon installation - a The wonderful Museum of the Moon installation - a 7 metre diameter scale model of the moon suspended in the Painted Hall at the  @oldroyalnavalcollege in Greenwich this week, by @lukejerramartist. A surreal and fabulous sight!
Do you enjoy free art installations? Then you need Do you enjoy free art installations? Then you need to get down to @canarywharflondon between now and Saturday 28 Jan to catch the free Winter Lights 2023 event, back for the seventh year.

My favourites include @lukejerramartist ‘s Floating Earth; Tom Lambert’s Out of the Dark; Fluorescent Firs; Toroid by This is Loop; and the surreal and mesmerising Anima by MEATS - a tunnel filled with hundreds of thin optical fibre lights that change colour and move in the breeze 😍 

Have you been to Winter Lights? What was your favourite?
“When we look down at the Earth from space, we s “When we look down at the Earth from space, we see this amazing, indescribably beautiful planet. It looks like a living, breathing organism. But it also, at the same time, looks extremely fragile.” - International Space Station astronaut Ron Garamond

To experience the “overview effect” (a phenomenon experienced by astronauts viewing the earth from space), head down to Canary Wharf in the London docklands this week where you can see @lukejerramartist ‘s beautiful Floating Earth installation as part of the Winter Lights event. 

This giant 10m diameter installation is created using high resolution NASA images to create a floating scale model of the Earth, lit from within so that it glows from its current home on the Middle Dock, surrounded by the headquarters of international banking and finance corporations.

The artist hopes that viewed in this context, the installation will make visitors and the bankers working in surrounding buildings question how their money in savings and pensions is invested, and whether investments can be greener.

Aside from being a thought provoking piece, it is also mesmerising and surreally beautiful, so make sure you visit the free Winter Lights event before ends on Saturday 28 Jan.
Happy lunar new year! [Invited] To celebrate the Happy lunar new year! 

[Invited] To celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit, why not head over to @mamachensdumplings currently doing a residence at the @thegantrylondon in #stratford where you can feast on prawn & chive dumplings; pork, Chinese cabbage and shiitake mushroom dumplings; pork & prawn wontons with Mama Chen’s chilli oil; vegetable dumplings; smacked cucumber salad; and spicy noodles coated in garlic and Szechuan pepper oil.

And afterwards, make sure you head up to the @unionsocialoc bar for a cocktail - I loved the Moreish Fashion with bourbon, PX sherry, chestnuts and mandarin orange bitters!
Got leftover Stilton (or any blue cheese) from Chr Got leftover Stilton (or any blue cheese) from Christmas? Turn it into this super simple and super indulgent broccoli and Stilton soup! So easy to make and soooo delicious to eat - and it is low carb and GF. What more could you want?! Click the link in my bio for the full recipe. What’s your favourite soup?
CELEBRATE. So the fireworks are over, the champag CELEBRATE.

So the fireworks are over, the champagne is finished and the leftovers are all eaten. We are one week into 2023 and I have had some time to think about what my intent is for the year. 

In 2022 my brother had a life saving kidney transplant. Since the operation, he has had a Peanuts cartoon as his WhatsApp profile pic, where Charlie Brown and Snoopy are sitting on a pier talking. Charlie says “Some day, we all die Snoopy.” And Snoopy replies: “Yes - but every other day, we will live.”

Waking up in the morning is a gift, every day, and it is so easy to forget this. The last few years have been difficult for so many people and the coming year promises its own challenges. But every day that we don’t die is a day to live, to celebrate life in some small way.

So my intention in 2023 is to celebrate. Celebrate our achievements however small. Celebrate our friends and family. Celebrate small things. Celebrate life.

Did you make any resolutions or goals for 2023? I would love to hear them in the comments! Wishing you all the very best for 2023 🥂
Happy new year, everyone! Here are some scenes fro Happy new year, everyone! Here are some scenes from last night with friends in Deptford. My deconstructed avocado ritz; @twinkleparkstephen ‘s bobitie; Giles’ Ottolenghi tomato salad; and Jean’s clementine trifle - and the London night sky ablaze with fireworks!  How did you spend your evening? 🥂🎇🎆
Merry Christmas to all those celebrating - I hope Merry Christmas to all those celebrating - I hope your day was merry and bright, filled with family, friends and love 🎄🥂. Mine was spent alone at home - my choice and the result of a combination of Covid (not mine!) and rail strikes 🤦‍♀️ but very relaxing and indulgent!
Looking for a stylish and easy Christmas starter y Looking for a stylish and easy Christmas starter you can make ahead? Look no further than my individual smoked salmon terrine! Hot smoked salmon, cream cheese and chives wrapped in cold smoked salmon in a ramekin. Still one of the most popular Christmas recipes in my blog, it looks cheffy but is soooo simple to make - and will save you time and effort on the day! Get the recipe by clicking on the link in my bio.

How is your Christmas meal prep going? Are you entertaining at home or going to friends or family? 🎄🥂🎄🥂🎄
Load More... Follow me on Instagram

Follow Jeanne Horak-Druiff's board Recipes by Cooksister on Pinterest.

Cooksister

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

Latest Recipes

Bowls of broccoli and Stilton soup
Salmon with blood oranges dill and capers
Brussels sprouts with feta and pomegranate
Roast lamb with pomegranate glaze
Blood orange & pistachio galettes
Cauliflower topped steak with melted cheese
Plate of potted smoked salmon with slaw and a glass of champagne
bowls of pistachio pomegranate bircher muesli

SITEMAP

Home

Contact

About me

Recipe Index

Restaurant Index

Copyright & Disclaimer

Cookies & privacy policy




blog counter

© 2004 - 2023 · Jeanne Horak unless otherwise stated - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may not reproduce any text, excerpts or images without my prior permission. Site by RTW Labs

Copyright © 2023 · Cooksister on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Cooksister cookie consent
We use cookies to ensure you receive the best experience on our site. If you continue to use this site, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions. Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT