Gammon in

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

is the hind leg of

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry, husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooke ...

after it has been cured by dry-salting or brining, and may or may not be smoked. Strictly speaking, a gammon is the bottom end of a whole side of bacon (which ''includes'' the back leg); ham is just the back leg cured on its own. Like

bacon Bacon is a type of Curing (food preservation), salt-cured pork made from various cuts of meat, cuts, typically the pork belly, belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central in ...

it must be cooked before it can be eaten; in that sense gammon is comparable to fresh pork meat, and different from dry-cured ham like jamón serrano or prosciutto.W K H Bode; M J Leto.
The Larder Chef
'. Routledge; 25 June 2012. . p. 178–. The term is mostly used in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

; other dialects of English largely make no distinction between gammon and ham. Ham hock, gammon hock, or knuckle, is the back end of the joint, and contains more

connective tissue Connective tissue is one of the four primary types of animal tissue, a group of cells that are similar in structure, along with epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. It develops mostly from the mesenchyme, derived from the mesod ...

and sinew.GOOD HOUSEKEEPING.
Gh Food Encyclopedia
'. Anova Books; 2009. . p. 185–. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, joints of cooked gammon are often served at

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

, but is produced and sold throughout the year. It can be found in most supermarkets either as a full joint or sliced into steaks, which can then be cooked via pan frying or grilling in a manner similar to bacon. The word 'gammon' is derived from the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

word for 'ham', , which is attested since the early 15th century and derived from Old North French , itself derived from Old French , which is identical to the modern French word for 'ham'. Old French is attested since the 13th century and is derived from Old French ( in Old North French) which in turn is derived from the

Late Latin Late Latin is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the 3rd to 6th centuries CE, and continuing into the 7th century in ...

, meaning 'leg/hock of a horse/animal'. can be traced to Greek () meaning 'a bending/a joint', which is from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

' ('to bend; crooked'). In some English dialects ''gambol'', which is similarly derived, refers to a 'leg'. In the 19th century, the word (sometimes extended to the phrase "gammon and spinach") had come to mean "humbug, a ridiculous story, deceitful talk" in Britain.Partridge, Eric, ''A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English'' (2006), p.44

/ref> In the 2010s it became a pejorative slang term for a Gammon (insult), white, right-wing person with a flushed red face.

References

{{Ham, state=expanded Ham Christmas food Cuts of pork Smoked meat

See also

References