Slow Cooker Gammon: The Easy Way to a Perfect Joint

Updated July 2026

A slow cooker gammon all but cooks itself. Sit a gammon joint in the pot with a bottle of cola, cider and apple juice, or plain water, set it to Low — about six hours for a typical 1.5kg joint — and walk away. Lift it out tender, score and glaze the fat, and give it twenty-five minutes in a hot oven for colour. The hob stays free, and so do you.

Cookery · Slow Cooker · Feeds a Crowd

Gammon cooking-time calculator

Set the weight of your joint and the calculator gives you the slow-cooker timing on Low or High, how many it serves, and a work-backwards timetable so it is ready when you are. It opens on the slow-cooker setting; switch to boil, boil-then-roast or oven if you change your mind. A thermometer reading 75°C in the centre is the real test.

No calculator showing? It needs JavaScript — the timing chart below has every figure, and works everywhere.

Why cook a gammon in the slow cooker

Because it is the most forgiving way to cook a large joint, and the least demanding of your attention. A gammon simmered on the hob wants watching and topping up; one roasted in the oven ties up the very space you need for everything else. The slow cooker does neither. It holds a gentle, even heat for hours, which is exactly what a dense cured joint wants, and it does so while you are at work, at the school gates, or doing anything other than standing over a pan.

The trade is that a slow cooker browns nothing. So the method here is two-part: the slow cooker cooks the meat through and makes it tender, and a short, sharp spell in a hot oven gives the fat its glaze and its colour. You get the ease of one and the looks of the other.

The slow cooker cooks it; the oven only makes it handsome.

What you need: gammon, a liquid, and a glaze

The joint

Buy a boneless gammon joint for the easiest carving; 1.5kg feeds eight to ten and fits most slow cookers. Smoked gives a deeper, baconier flavour; unsmoked is milder and a little sweeter. Choose whichever bacon you prefer, since gammon is the same cure. If your pot is small, ask the butcher to halve a larger joint rather than wedging it in. Gammon and ham are the same meat at different stages: gammon is the raw cured joint, ham is what it becomes once cooked.

Do you need to soak it?

Most supermarket gammon is mildly cured and does not need soaking. If yours is from a traditional butcher, or labelled heavily salted, an overnight soak in cold water, or a quick first boil that you tip away, will tame the salt. The fuller answer, and the oven and boiling methods, are in our companion guide, how to cook a gammon joint.

The liquid

The liquid flavours the meat and keeps the lower half moist; it does not need to cover the joint. Come about halfway up. Three good choices, and an honest fourth:

• Cola (the gammon-in-coke method) gives a sweet, faintly spiced, deeply savoury result; use ordinary full-sugar cola, about a litre. Diet cola works too if you would rather, with a slightly thinner flavour.
• Dry cider and apple juice, roughly 500ml of each, give an orchard depth that suits the honey glaze beautifully.
• Apple juice alone, or cola alone, keeps the whole thing alcohol-free with no loss of flavour, which matters if you are cooking for children or for anyone who does not drink.
• Water or stock, 300 to 500ml, is the plainest route and a perfectly good one; the glaze does the flavouring at the end. This is the no-fuss, no-liquid-to-buy version.

A halved onion, a carrot, a bay leaf, a cinnamon stick or a spoon of mixed spice and a few peppercorns add background without any real effort.

How long to cook gammon in a slow cooker, by weight

Slow cookers are forgiving, so the times below are a guide rather than a stopwatch. The reliable rule is about two hours per kilogram, plus a three-hour base, on Low — roughly six hours for a 1.5kg joint — or about an hour per kilo plus two on High. A probe thermometer, not the clock, is what tells you it is ready. And always follow the instructions on your own joint: they take priority over any general timing.

How to tell when gammon is cooked

Gammon is cooked when its centre reaches 75°C on a digital probe, the simple supermarket target, comfortably above the Food Standards Agency’s safe line for pork of 70°C held for two minutes. Push the probe into the thickest part, away from any bone, and read it there. Two things trip people up. First, cured meat stays a pale rosy pink even when fully cooked, so the usual “no pink” test does not apply; the thermometer is the only honest guide. Second, if you have read 145°F on an American recipe, that is the USDA figure for the United States; in the UK, follow the FSA’s higher number. A cheap probe thermometer is the single most useful thing you can own for joints, and it removes all the guesswork here.

The glaze, and whether you even need the oven

Here is the honest answer most recipes bury in the comments: the slow cooker has already cooked the gammon through, so the oven step is purely for the glaze and the colour. If the meat is bound for sandwiches, a soup or a midweek ham and egg, skip the oven entirely, slice it warm or cold and be done. Keep the oven blast for when the joint is the centrepiece and you want that sticky, burnished top.

To glaze: lift the joint out and let it cool for ten minutes so the skin firms up. Peel off the skin with a small knife, leaving the fat behind. Score the fat into diamonds, a centimetre or so apart, cutting into the fat but not the meat. Scoring opens the surface so the glaze catches and the fat crisps. Brush generously with a glaze of honey, a spoon of mustard and a little brown sugar, then roast at 200°C (180°C fan, Gas 6) for 20 to 30 minutes, until dark gold and sticky. That oven is hotter and quicker than you would use for a raw joint, because you are colouring cooked meat, not cooking it.

Cooking it ahead, and resting

Gammon is the ideal make-ahead joint. You can slow-cook it up to two days before, cool it, wrap it well and chill it, then bring it back to room temperature and do the glaze-and-blast on the day, which takes half an hour and frees you to deal with everything else. Whether hot or made ahead, rest the glazed joint for ten minutes before carving so the juices settle. Carve in thin slices across the grain; a gammon that is hacked thickly always seems drier than it is.

What to do with the leftovers

A large joint is half the point. Cool, cover and refrigerate it within 1–2 hours, in a fridge at 5C or below; eat it cold, or freeze it, within two days (frozen, it keeps about a month, sliced for the quickest defrost). Reheat only once, until piping hot throughout, and do not rely on smell or appearance to judge safety. It earns its keep as: doorstep sandwiches with proper mustard; ham, egg and chips; a pea and ham soup built on the cooking liquid; a chicken and ham pie; or chopped through a carbonara. Do not pour the cooking liquid away. It is a ready-made, if salty, ham stock; taste it first and dilute as needed.

Slow Cooker Gammon

Frequently asked questions

How long does gammon take in a slow cooker?

About two hours per kilogram plus a three-hour base on Low — about six hours for a 1.5kg joint — or an hour per kilo plus two on High (about 3 hours 30). Check the centre reaches 75°C rather than relying on the clock.

Do you need to put liquid in the slow cooker with gammon?

A little, yes. You do not need to cover the joint, but about 300ml of water in the base is plenty to stop it catching; if you would rather braise it in cola or cider for flavour, use enough to come about halfway up. The flavour mostly comes from the glaze at the end.

Can you cook gammon in coke in the slow cooker?

Yes, and it is a popular method. Use about a litre of ordinary full-sugar cola to come halfway up the joint; it gives a sweet, gently spiced, savoury result. Diet cola works too. Cook as normal, then glaze and blast in the oven.

How do you make slow cooker gammon without alcohol?

Use cola or apple juice in place of cider, or plain water. All give a tender joint, and the honey-mustard glaze carries the flavour. There is no need for any alcohol at all.

Do you have to finish gammon in the oven?

No. The slow cooker cooks the gammon through on its own. The oven step is only to set a glaze and crisp the fat, so skip it for sandwiches and leftovers, and keep it for a centrepiece.

What temperature should gammon be cooked to?

To a core temperature of 75°C, comfortably above the Food Standards Agency’s safe line for pork of 70°C held for two minutes. Probe the thickest part, away from any bone. Cured gammon stays faintly pink even when cooked, so use a thermometer, not colour.

Can you cook gammon in a slow cooker the day before?

Yes. Slow-cook it up to two days ahead, cool and chill it, then bring it back to room temperature and do the glaze and oven blast on the day. It is one of the best make-ahead joints there is.

How much gammon do I need per person?

Allow 150 to 200g of cooked gammon per person for a main course, less on a buffet. A 1.5kg raw joint serves 6 to 8 as a hot main, and more sliced cold, with leftovers.

For the oven and boiling methods, soaking in detail, and a full glaze guide, see our companion piece, how to cook a gammon joint. To plan the rest of the meal around it, try our best potatoes for roasting and our roast chicken timer and Sunday lunch timing plan. For another hands-off slow-cooker supper, see our slow cooker sausage casserole, and for the leftovers, how to freeze the trimmings for sandwiches another day.

Written by Linda Garrould · Updated 19 July 2026 · General guidance; check your gammon’s label and your own probe thermometer.