Orange Roasted Gammon

Posted On 22 July 2022

Christmas 2020! A time for celebration, family gatherings and… oh wait, no. This was 2020. “I’m…. dreaming of a …… lockdown Christmas?!”

Still, as much as I was expecting it to be a lockdown Christmas, and as much as I was tempted to meet up with the family – the risk of Covid wasn’t worth it. So, having bought in some large cuts of meat, I cooked them up and distributed to family safely.

Something I tried years ago, was an Orange Roasted Gammon. It was one of those happy accidents of cooking, where I just shoved a load of stuff in the oven, turned it on and walked away – and came back to this incredible, marmaladey flavoured gammon with a glorious glaze. I don’t know what ingredients I used, other than loads of oranges, sugar and honey… but I’ve never been able to replicate it.

So I thought I’d give it a go.

I boiled some gammon in orange juice for a while (eek, I forgot how long… let’s say a few hours? an hour? let’s meet in the middle – an hour and a half).

I then sliced a load of oranges, and tied them around the gammon:

I put it in a tray filled with fresh orange juice, and into the oven it went. After two and a half hours, I wanted to baste it with honey:

Mmmm. That’s looking good. After another hour:

I decided to take the oranges off here, because I wanted the outside of the gammon to crisp up, I thought it might benefit from some roasting and glazing:

So as you can see, I’ve taken the oranges off, and I drained down the liquid into a bowl and added a load of honey. I then cut the fat in a criss cross and basted the gammon thoroughly:

Back into the oven it went for another half hour on a high heat:

In hindsight, I wish I’d given it another hour or so, and a few more bastes… but it came off and rested, before cooling on a plate before carving the next day: