How many calories in gammon? Joints, steaks and the ham question

Gammon looks like the indulgent option. It comes with a sticky glaze at Christmas, and in a pub it arrives with a fried egg and a ring of pineapple.

The meat itself is lean. Cooked gammon is about 240 kcal per 100g with the fat on, and about 160 with it trimmed. Without the fat, that puts it level with chicken breast.

Almost half of the calories sit in the rim of fat around the edge. The glaze barely registers. The number worth watching is the salt.

The quick answer

These are weights on the plate. Trimming a slice also takes weight off it, so a 120g portion with its rim cut away is about 97g of lean meat and 153 kcal.

Gammon steaks

Steaks are sold by raw weight and lose about a quarter of it in the pan. These figures use the cooked weight.

The trimmed column is lower for two reasons: the rim is the densest part, and it also takes weight off the plate.

The rim is almost half the calories

This is the correction. People look at the shiny glaze or the salty cure. The calories are in the white band around the outside.

Fat is nearly four times as dense as the lean meat, using the separated values in USDA's cured ham data. Cut the rim off once it is on your plate and you lose almost half the calories in that portion.

It is worth cooking with the fat on, though. It keeps the joint moist, and you can always leave it at the side of the plate.

The glaze is the small part

A glaze looks like the expensive addition. It is spread across a lot of meat, and some of it stays in the tin.

Skipping the glaze saves about 33 kcal. Trimming the fat from the same portion saves about 135. If you are choosing one, keep the glaze, since the honey is doing more for the flavour.

Why one label says 112 and another says 240

Gammon labels look contradictory until you check what each number describes.

Two things are going on. Many UK joints are sold as "gammon with added water", with most of the fat trimmed, and the figure is for raw weight. Then cooking takes out about a quarter of that weight as water, so a joint at 112 raw comes out near 150 cooked. That is the same answer as lean roasted ham.

Log the cooked weight with a cooked figure, or the raw weight with the label figure. Mixing them is where the error comes from.

US ham shows the water effect clearly, because the label category is regulated.

The calories barely move. The protein does, so the more water a ham carries, the less meat you are paying for.

How it compares

Trimmed gammon sits right next to chicken breast and turkey for calories, with a little less protein. That surprises most people. Leave the fat on and the protein return roughly halves.

It also beats bacon, since grilled back bacon is about 290 kcal per 100g.

Salt is the real trade

UK gammon joints list around 2.2 to 2.7g of salt per 100g, so 2.4g is a fair figure. The NHS label guide calls anything above 1.5g high, and the adult limit is 6g a day.

Trimming the fat does nothing for this, since the cure is in the meat. Soaking or simmering a joint can draw some salt out, so follow the pack if it suggests that. Then go easy on what you pour on top: gravy from granules adds about 0.8g per 100ml.

Gammon also counts as processed meat. The NHS advises cutting down to 70g of red or processed meat a day if you eat more than 90g, and a Christmas portion is 120g on its own. The WHO classes processed meat as carcinogenic to humans, with risk rising with the amount eaten. That is an argument for eating it occasionally, not for avoiding it at Christmas.

The pub plate

Gammon, egg and chips with a ring of pineapple is one of the great pub orders. Here is how it adds up.

The egg-or-pineapple debate is 66 kcal, and you can have both for 114. The chips are the bigger number. The fat rim is about 190 of the gammon.

Do both and you still have a gammon steak, an egg, a pineapple ring, peas and potatoes, with about 40g of protein from the meat and egg.

Boxing Day and leftovers

Packet ham is lighter than carved gammon, at around 110 to 140 kcal per 100g, because it is lean and carries more water. The sandwich breakdown shows how the spread adds up.

UK and US words that trip up logging

• Gammon. The cured hind leg of a pig, sold raw in the UK. The word is rarely used in the US.
• Ham. In the UK, gammon becomes ham once it is cooked. In the US, ham is usually sold fully cooked and only needs reheating.
• Fresh ham. In the US this is an uncured, raw pork leg. It is roast pork, with none of the cure and none of the salt of gammon.
• Gammon steak and ham steak. The same idea. A US ham steak is usually pre-cooked and thinner.
• Country ham. Dry-cured Southern US ham, much saltier than a city ham. Treat the salt figures above as a minimum.
• Picnic ham. A US cut from the shoulder, not the leg, and it can run fattier.
• Bacon joint. A cured UK joint from the collar or shoulder rather than the leg. Log it like gammon with the fat on.
• Spiral ham. Pre-sliced US ham, usually sold with a sugar glaze packet. Count the glaze if you use all of it.

Gammon mistakes to avoid

Using the raw label for a cooked weight

A joint at 112 raw is about 150 cooked. Weighing your cooked slices against the raw figure undercounts by around a quarter.

Logging "gammon steak" without the rim

An 8oz steak is 408 with the rim and 217 without. Log what you actually ate.

Blaming the glaze

It is about 33 kcal a portion. The fat is four times that.

Forgetting salt on a high-salt day

An 8oz steak with 100ml of gravy is about 80% of your daily salt before anything else on the plate.

Three ways to keep gammon

The Christmas slice (225 kcal)

• 120g glazed gammon, fat trimmed (192 kcal)
• Share of the glaze (33 kcal)

Adds up to: 225 kcal, with about 30g of protein.

The lighter pub plate (561 kcal)

• 8oz gammon steak, rim trimmed (217 kcal)
• 200g new potatoes (174 kcal)
• Fried egg (90 kcal)
• Peas, 80g (56 kcal)
• Pineapple ring (24 kcal)

Adds up to: 561 kcal, against 1,058 for the standard plate.

The Boxing Day sandwich (251 kcal)

• 2 medium slices white bread (150 kcal)
• 60g gammon, fat trimmed (96 kcal)
• 1 tsp mustard (5 kcal)

Adds up to: 251 kcal. Mustard instead of butter saves 72.

The verdict

Cooked gammon is about 240 kcal per 100g with the fat on and about 160 trimmed. Trimmed, it sits level with chicken breast, and an 8oz pub steak falls from 408 to 217.

The glaze is a small extra. The salt is not, at nearly half of a day's limit in one Christmas portion.

If you change one thing, leave the fat at the side of the plate.

Pairs well with: the bacon calorie breakdown, the turkey calorie breakdown, and the roast dinner calorie breakdown.