A wonderful winter gammon dish, perfect for Boxing Day or New Year’s Day! Grapefruit Glazed Gammon Joint has all 5 main flavours: salty, umami gammon, sour and bitter grapefruit and sweet honey, make this an irresistible centrepiece for your celebratory dinner table! We serve this Gammon Joint For Christmas with a Cranberry and Grapefruit Sauce, using up any leftover frozen cranberries. And if you have any ham left, it is great in sandwiches!
- Gammon and Grapefruit: A Perfect Match
- Secret Ingredient In Glazed Gammon Joint
- Feeding a Crowd: How To Make a Large Glazed Gammon Joint?
- Timings for Cooking Gammon Joint
- Method: How to Make Glazed Gammon Joint For Christmas?
- What To Serve Glazed Gammon Joint With?
- Cranberry Grapefruit Sauce For Gammon
- How To Store and Use Glazed Gammon Leftovers?
- Other Roast Dinner Recipes
- Recipe Card
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Gammon and Grapefruit: A Perfect Match
We don’t have gammon very often here, at Somebody Feed Seb, but every time we do Seb claims that it is his favourite meat. Grapefruit, on the other hand, is my second favourite fruit in the world (only losing to watermelon). So this gammon dish is a real treat for both of us. And we are sure you will love it too! That’s because cooking gammon joint this way is the best method we’ve come across over the years!
Secret Ingredient In Glazed Gammon Joint
This grapefruit glazed ham recipe is a relatively sweet dish with just a touch of spice. The secret ingredient is the Chinese Five Spice which adds a little extra aroma to the gammon. The best part is that this recipe only takes a few minutes of hands-on time to have an impressive centrepiece!
Feeding a Crowd: How To Make a Large Glazed Gammon Joint?
The recipe here feeds 4-5 people, but if you are cooking for more, don’t worry. You can double the ingredients easily, and the only thing you need to adjust in terms of the method is the time that you boil the gammon joint.
Timings for Cooking Gammon Joint
The general rule is to place the gammon in cold water, bring it to a boil and then simmer it for approx. 20 minutes per 500g before glazing and roasting. Following this rule, you can easily make the recipe to feed a crowd! Keep the roasting time the same.

Method: How to Make Glazed Gammon Joint For Christmas?
STEP 1: How To Boil Unsmoked Gammon Joint?
Place the unsmoked gammon joint in a large pan and cover it with cold water. Add the peppercorns and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, cover partially with a lid and simmer gently for 1 hour.
STEP 2: Score The Boiled Christmas Gammon
Preheat the oven to 200°C Fan. Score ham in a criss-cross pattern and place it in a roasting pan. To avoid the mess, line it with foil.
STEP 3: Make Grapefruit Glaze for Gammon and Roast
In a small bowl, combine the grapefruit juice, wine, Chinese five-spice and honey. Pour the mixture over the Christmas gammon and place it in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
STEP 4: Glazing Gammon Joint
Remove the Christmas Gammon from the oven and transfer it to a platter. Pour all the juices from the roasting pan into a saucepan and set over low heat.
Mix the cornflour and water and stir into the pan juices. Stir until the sauce thickens and just starts to boil. Pour the glaze over the ham. And leave to rest for 10 minutes before carving.


What To Serve Glazed Gammon Joint With?
This Grapefruit Gammon Joint recipe is a perfect Christmas period dish for us, so we love serving it with all the lovely Christmas side dishes, including Slow Cooker Red Cabbage and more:
- Garlicky Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Reduction
- Boulangère Potatoes (French Onion Potato Bake)
- Baby Hasselback Potatoes | Alternative to Roast Potatoes
- Potato Gratin Stacks (Muffin Tin Potatoes)
- Orange Glazed Carrots in a Pan

Cranberry Grapefruit Sauce For Gammon
Whilst traditional sauce for gammon is normally an apple sauce or a mustard sauce, we love this Christmas Gammon recipe with a simple Cranberry and Grapefruit sauce.
To make the relish, place cranberries, grapefruit juice, a strip of grapefruit zest, a sprig of rosemary and sugar in a pan and heat on medium until thickened, about 15 minutes. Remove the rosemary sprig before serving.
For more details, visit our full Cranberry Sauce recipe here (available from 20th December 2022).

How To Store and Use Glazed Gammon Leftovers?
If you happen to have any leftover ham, cool it down to room temperature, then store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Any leftovers are great:
- Sandwiches with some mustard, lettuce and tomatoes.
- On a Ham and Pineapple Pizza.
- In a Ham and Pea Soup.
- As a topping for Double Cooked Dumplings.
Other Roast Dinner Recipes
If Glazed Gammon Joint doesn’t float your boat, have a look at some of our other Roast Dinner recipes below:
- Apricot Stuffed Leg of Lamb
- Whole Roast Christmas Chicken
- Vegetarian Roast (Nut Roast with Cranberries)
Recipe Card

Grapefruit Glazed Gammon Joint For Christmas
Ingredients
- 1.3 kg unsmoked gammon joint
- ½ teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
For the Glaze:
- 1 grapefruit juiced (about 150ml)
- 125 ml white wine
- 40 g clear honey
- 1 heaped tsp Chinese five spice
- ½ tablespoon cornflour
- 50 ml water
For the Cranberry-Grapefruit Relish:
- 120 g frozen cranberries
- 120 ml grapefruit juice freshly squeezed
- 80 g brown sugar
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- a strip of grapefruit zest optional
Instructions
- Place the gammon joint in a large pan and cover with water. Add the peppercorns and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, cover partially with a lid and simmer gently for 1 hour.
- To make the relish, place all the ingredinets into a pan and heat on medium until thickened, about 15 minutes. Remove the rosemary sprig before serving.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C Fan. Score ham in a criss cross pattern and place in roasting pan.
- In a small bowl, combine the grapefruit juice, wine, chinese five spice and honey. Pour mixture over the ham and place it in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
- Remove the ham from the oven and transfer it to a platter. Pour all the juices from the roasting pan into a saucepan. and set over low heat. Mix the cornflour and water and stir into the pan juices. Stir until the sauce thickens and just starts to boil. Pour the glaze over the ham. And leave to rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Nutrition

kushigalu
That glaze looks fantastic. Pinned to try this for the holidays. Thanks for sharing.
Ieva
Thanks, Kushigalu! Hope you like it as much as we do 🙂
Mairead
Thank you for an amazing holiday ham recipe. I often make orange cranberry sauce, but grapefruit cranberry sauce is just as delicious.
Ieva
Thank you for giving it a go! So glad you liked the sauce 🙂
Mahy
Saving this recipe for the next weekend for sure. Love how easy it is to follow your recipe instructions making this gammon.
Ieva
Thanks, Mahy. As always, please let me know what you thought about it 🙂
Charla
My sister in law cooks gammon very often and is always looking for new ways to jazz it up!. As far as I’m aware she hasn’t made a grapefruit and cranberry duo glaze. I might be nice and surprise her with your award winning recipe for the holidays. Thank you!
Ieva
Thanks, Charla! Hope both you and your sister like it! 💗
Dionne
So juicy so delicious! Love how amazing this recipe looks. I bet tastes even better!
Ieva
It definitely tastes gooood! Making it again over this Christmas! 🙂
Farah Maizar
This looks so elegant and love the use of grapefruit! Can’t wait to try this out thanks for the recipe!