Unsmoked Gammon (5.5Kg). Superb Quality Wholesale Sized Gammon 🐷

Information about Unsmoked Horseshoe Gammon.

Delicious slices of freshly cut Gammon served with roast potatoes, stuffing, fresh vegetables, smothered with thick gravy guarantees a happy family dinner. Our wholesale Unsmoked Gammons are approx 5.5-6Kg ( 25 portions of 200g), enough to cater for over 20 people. The high quality Pork used by expert butchers to cut these from, has the same texture & quality as our Half Horseshoe Gammons.

The Whole Gammons are usually bought by restaurants for a carvery meat dish choice, these are very popular due to the leanness & tenderness of the meat.

At Christmas time Horseshoe Gammons are very popular & normally ordered online well in advance to ensure that they have one for Christmas Day or Boxing Day. Having Roast Gammon as an extra meat choice is perfect to go with our Roast Beef Carvery Rib, Bacon & Traditional Sausage Meat .

What is an Unsmoked Gammon?

Whole Unsmoked Gammon is a cut from the Pork Leg cured in Brine.

Gammons & Hams are made from parts of the Pork Leg, they are boneless consisting of main Leg muscles with the Rind / Skin left on. The meat is soaked in a Brine Solution (salt water) for 10 days until the meat is cured giving it its distinct flavour. A whole Gammon typically weighs approximately 5.5-6Kg, the Horseshoe Gammon offered by Sherwood is cut in half (2Kg+) & netted holding the meat together.

How are Unsmoked Gammons butchered & prepared?

How do we butcher a Horseshoe Gammon?

The Horseshoe Unsmoked Gammon is removed from the Leg of Pork, they are cut from the fillet end.

Once the Pork Legs have been selected for size the expert butchers cut off the Trotter through the ankle joint, then cut off the Shank through the Knee joint. The Leg then has the “Aitch Bone”  (Hip Bone) cut out before the Femur Bone is “Tunnel Boned” by expert butchers to ensure that the piece remains together. The Leg is tunnel Boned because it gives you whole slices of Gammon when carving.

The Leg is the trimmed & tidied up to remove cartilage & gristle, leaving the meat & less fat creating a less wasteful piece of Gammon. Leaving the meat as a piece keeps the moisture in the meat & helps it to cook better.

The Pork Leg has a fibrous texture compared to the Loin, the flavour is better because it breaks down during the cooking process to become very tender. The Leg contains heavily worked muscles & as like Beef, has some of the best roasting joints; Topside, Top Rump (Thick / Knuckle) or Silverside. These cuts are all in your Whole Unsmoked Gammon joint.

How is the Boneless Pork Leg made into an Horseshoe Unsmoked Gammon?

The process from turning a Boneless Leg of Pork into an Unsmoked (Horseshoe) Gammon is started by curing them in salt or brining.

The Whole Boneless Legs of Pork are placed into large Brine tubs & left at a temperature of 2°c for up to 10 days. This is a long enough time to get the Salt into the meat & create the familiar flavour of Gammon.

Once the Boneless Whole Unsmoked Gammons are fully brined, they are then left to hang overnight in the chiller to “Setup” (setup; the meat relaxes & drains off the excess water). The Whole Gammons are then Netted (placed in elastic netting) pulling the meat together keeping all the moisture in the meat when cooking. The Gammons are the cut in half across the grain before being packed.

The 2 step process of butchering a Leg of Pork & brining it makes your Unsmoked Horseshoe Gammons.

How are Whole Unsmoked Gammons packed?

The Gammons are Vacuum Sealed in recyclable Clear Pouches.

To create the safest meat possible we pack the Unsmoked Gammons immediately after cutting. This reduces any natural bacteria growth & keeps the brined meat moist for a better tasting results when cooked. We place one Gammon per pack, these packs are Vacuum Sealed, sucking the moisture into the meat. The Horseshoe Unsmoked Gammons are placed into Recyclable Cardboard Boxes, palletised & “Blast Frozen” to -25°c & delivered to our distribution depot.

All our production facilities are BRCGS / IFS approved  that make any of our meat cuts or products. All refrigerated air is filtered in production rooms, the butchers & packing staff wear fully protective clothing, these precautions reduce natural bacteria. The low temperatures help to keep the meat from losing its natural juices, this makes for a juicier piece of Horseshoe Gammon.

The Recyclable Clear Pouches protect the Unsmoked Gammons from Freezer Burn, Cross Contamination from other foodstuffs in your fridge, any handling when being picked & packed for your home delivery. The Recyclable Clear Pouches are helping to reduce our Carbon Footprint with customers recycling responsibly at home, & we are now using stronger thinner bags helping reduce plastic usage.

Are Unsmoked Gammons good value for money?

The catering sized Horseshoe Unsmoked Gammons are inexpensive with little waste.

The Gammons are made to be ready prepared for catering sized cooking, giving you more meat for your money #moremeatfym . Pork is generally a less costly meat than Beef or Lamb with a much lower price per kilo. The Leg of Pork used to make Unsmoked Gammons is one of the cheapest cuts giving high yields in production. These are excellent for using at catering events or carvery’s due to the larger 5kg + size, the good yields combined with a wholesale price, makes your price per portion lower.

We make the Horseshoe Unsmoked Gammons as a wholesale meat cut, also preparing the Half Horseshoes available to buy as an online. The highly efficient process of cutting, packing & shipping lowers our production costs so that we may offer more meat at a lower price online. The production uses less energy with more renewable energy now being used as standard practice, this makes our meat cuts have a lower “Carbon Footprint”.

 Provenance of our Pork:

We source all our Pork locally to our production facilities to reduce our “Carbon Footprint” with lower vehicle emissions & less journey times, reducing stress levels for the pigs. Sourcing our Pork locally from Northern France, Belgium & Ireland ensures we have a sustainable supply of high quality pork from good welfare farms. Having top grade Pork allows us to make “Restaurant Quality” pork cuts in larger volumes to supply homes & restaurants across the UK & Europe.

Our choice of preferred Pig breed is “Pie Train Pig”, this is found mainly in the Wallonia region of Western Belgium.

These are a Pig with a good meat yield, low in cholesterol, good muscle structure & a mild temperament. The Pork has a good flavour & texture combined with modern day slaughtering techniques are designed to be as humane as possible, ensuring light coloured, soft meat with a low PH level.

What is Ultimate PH and how does it influence Meat Quality?

We select Legs of Pork for UK production before they are then shipped to production in the UK where we produce our Unsmoked Horseshoe Gammons.

How to cook Unsmoked (Horseshoe) Gammon

The most popular way to cook Gammon is to boil it or roast in the oven.

Before you start cooking your Horseshoe Gammon you need to get some of the excess salt out of the meat. This is done by soaking in cold water in a large pot submersing the Gammon for 6 hours, changing the water every hour.

These are easy to cook, just boil & allow around 25 minutes per 450g & add an extra 20-30 minutes at the end. Make sure you remove the white foam like layer from the water at regular intervals, drain the gammon joint half way through the cooking period & leave to rest (Covered in tin foil, not tightly wrapped) for 15 mins. With the remaining time, carefully remove the skin & cover with glaze of your choice, then cover & pop into the oven to bake at around 180°c.

Then remove before finished, uncover the meat & pop back for a little browning off to finish to make your piece really stand out in the middle of the dinner table.

As this is an Unsmoked Horseshoe Gammon, this is superb when “Smoked at home”. We have many online customers that love to Barbecue & Smoke their meat all year round, we have seen amazing results on Social Media with these. The Smokey flavour given to the Gammon during your Low & Slow cook really brings out the flavour of the Pork. The subtle Smokey flavour in the slices on the plate really makes a difference as all those who have enjoyed good Barbecue will know!

For many years Roast Gammon has been used traditionally at Thanksgiving & Christmas in many households all over the world because it is easy to cook & not an expensive meat to buy. Having items like this available to buy on our website are great because it’s a great way to bring quality & value for money to the dinner tables of families.

How to prepare your Unsmoked Gammon before cooking:

• Put the Unsmoked Gammon into the bottom drawer or lowest shelf in the fridge (keep in the bag).
• Remove from the fridge once fully thawed & remove from the pouch.
• Place the Gammon into a large pan of cold water.
• Change the water every hour over six hours to release some of the salt out of the meat.

How to cook your Unsmoked Gammon:

• How to make Honey & Mustard Gammon recipe.
• Slow cooker & roasted Gammon
• Baked & Glazed Gammon Recipe
• How to cook Steaks from your Horseshoe Gammon

Pro Tip for great Unsmoked Gammon results:

Once your Gammon is nearly up to temperature place on a wooden board covered over in a tea towel (the fabric stops it sweating). Let this rest for 30 minutes to finish cooking & it lets the meat relax becoming more juicy & tender. All those lovely juices will soak back into the meat.

Are Unsmoked (Horseshoe) Gammons nutritious?

Gammon is cured Pork meat with salt & should be eaten in moderation.

A healthy diet contains Red meat like Pork because it contains the essential natural vitamins, minerals & protein needed in a balanced diet. These essential vitamins & minerals are important for maintaining energy levels, good digestion. Protein is essential for muscle, hair, nail growth it keeps the strength in muscles, especially for athletes, body builders etc.

The Unsmoked Gammon is by the nature of the piece; cured in brine. Too much salt in your diet is not good for you because it dehydrates your body. The process of soaking the Gammon in water helps to reduce this making it healthier to eat. This will not loose any flavour from the meat, it will make the Gammon have a more natural taste once roasted.

Sharing your cooked Horseshoe Gammon on Social Media.

Enjoying this at home with family & friends is great but, sharing your cooks online with your followers is even better when others can gain inspiration & knowledge from what you do. People regularly search on Google for new ideas & information about Unsmoked Horseshoe Gammon, your cooks will give them the help they need.

Why not join Sherwood Foods on Social Media & tag us in your posts when cooking your Unsmoked Horseshoe Gammon. We are on Facebook , Instagram & Twitter we can share your pictures, reels, videos, recipes, ideas, stories, recipes & cooking methods with our growing group of followers. We love to see how are meats are cooked in homes across the country, this makes everything we do all that more special.

Tagging us in your posts makes it easy for us follow what others post online with our meats, this means we can like & comment on your results. Hashtags are a different way to categorise your Social Media posts into groups like; recipes, cooking methods, types of meat cooked, recipes etc. People do follow Hashtags & they are a great way to get your posts seen by a different audience.

In addition to our Facebook Page, we have an interactive Facebook Group for sharing your cooks & ideas. The group is Sherwood Home Cooking & Barbecue, see delicious recipes, hints & tips from some of our online customers.

Enjoy your Unsmoked Horseshoe Gammon Joint at home, we look forward to seeing your results online.

Sherwood Foods Hashtags:

#unsmokedgammon #gammon #ourbrandisapromise #moremeatfym