Gammon with Parsley Sauce
A gammon joint boiled in cider with a white sauce full of parsley. Old-fashioned in the best way and the source of a week of sandwiches.
Photograph credit: Hairy Dieters Gammon steak with parsley sauce, runner beans and new potatoes by Miia Sample · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Flickr · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Soak the gammon overnight in cold water and change the water once, unless the butcher tells you it does not need it — a heavily cured joint will otherwise make both the meat and the sauce far too salty to eat. Then simmer, never boil: hard boiling squeezes the muscle fibres and gives you dry, stringy ham no matter how much liquid it is sitting in. The sauce is made partly with the cooking liquor, which is where its flavour comes from, and the parsley goes in at the very end so it stays green.
Quick Answers
How long does Gammon with Parsley Sauce take to make?
20 minutes of preparation and 2 hours of cooking, plus 12 hours of soaking the gammon overnight, so allow 14 hours 20 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 6.
The Method for Gammon with Parsley Sauce
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Soak the gammon in cold water 12 hours, changing the water once.
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Drain it, put it in a deep pot with the cider, the onion, carrots, bay, peppercorns and cloves, and add water to cover.
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Bring slowly to a simmer and skim the scum for the first 10 minutes.
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Simmer very gently, never boiling, 2 hours, until a skewer slides in easily.
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Lift the gammon out, cover it and let it rest while you make the sauce. Strain and reserve 200 ml of the liquor.
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Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook 2 minutes without colouring.
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Whisk in the milk gradually, then the reserved liquor, and simmer 5 minutes until it coats a spoon.
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Stir in the parsley, mustard, nutmeg and pepper off the heat. Taste before adding any salt.
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Carve the gammon thickly and pour the sauce over.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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A Few Pointers
- Soak it overnight or the whole dish will be too salty.
- A gentle simmer, never a boil.
- Use the cooking liquor in the sauce. It is where the flavour is.
Pairs Well With
Boiled new potatoes · Buttered broad beans · English mustard
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Braised Red Cabbage, Dairy-Free Scones, Duck Fat Roast Potatoes.
Storage
Refrigerated for 5 days and excellent cold. Freezes 2 months.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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