Pork · Slow cooker adaptation

Jamie Oliver Slow Cooker Gammon Marmalade Glaze

Jamie's Christmas roast ham, lifted out of the oven and into the slow cooker. The poach happens slowly with stock vegetables, then a brief, hot finish for that black-pepper and marmalade glaze.

R By Richard · Adapted from Jamie Oliver · Published 1 June 2026
👁 1.9M source views ❤️ 14.9k source likes
⏱Prep 20 min
🍲Slow cook 7 hr (Low) / 5 hr (High)
🍽Serves 12
Perfect Roast Ham with Marmalade Glaze | Jamie Oliver

Source video by Jamie Oliver on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules and is marked for human review.

A salt-cured gammon joint is rested in cold water to draw out excess salt, then drained, settled on a bed of root vegetables and aromatics in the slow cooker and cooked low for hours until the meat is tender. The skin is trimmed away, the fat is scored in a criss-cross, and the joint moves to a hot oven for the second act: a 20-minute fat sizzle, then a generous dust of black pepper and a marmalade glaze brushed on with a rosemary-sprig brush. Repeated bastes over an hour pull the glaze tight and dark.

Slow cooker notes: Jamie's original poaches on the hob then roasts. The slow cooker version replaces the 1.5-hour hob poach with a long low cook in the slow cooker. The oven finish for the glaze is kept because the marmalade only caramelises with direct dry heat, slow cookers will not crisp the fat or set the glaze.

Ingredients

Slow cook
  • 4.5 kgsalt-cured gammon joint, rested in cold water for 1 to 2 hours then drained
  • carrots, roughly chopped
  • celery, roughly chopped
  • garlic
  • bouquet garni or mixed herbs
  • orange zest
  • black peppercorns
  • water, to cover the gammon
Glaze
  • thin-cut orange marmalade, for brushing (add late)
  • coarsely cracked black pepper, for generous dusting (add late)
  • fresh rosemary sprigs, tied together as a basting brush (add late)

Method

  1. Rest the gammon in a big bowl of cold water for 1 to 2 hours, then drain. This pulls the worst of the cure salt out.

    ~90 min

  2. Sit the gammon in the slow cooker with the carrots, celery, optional garlic, bouquet garni, orange zest and peppercorns around it. Pour over enough water to cover.

    ~5 min

  3. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours or high for 5 hours, until the meat is fully cooked through.

    ~420 min

  4. Lift the gammon out onto a board, snip off any string, and pull off the skin while keeping as much fat behind as possible. Trim the fat to an even layer all the way round.

    ~8 min

  5. Score the fat in a criss-cross with a sharp knife, the cuts let the fat render and give the glaze something to cling to.

    ~5 min

  6. Heat the oven to 170C / 325F. Sit the gammon in a roasting tray and roast for 20 minutes to get the fat sizzling.

    ~20 min

  7. Pull out, baste with the rendered fat from the tray, dust generously with cracked black pepper, then brush over a layer of marmalade. The oven heat will start melting it down into the criss-cross.

    ~3 min

  8. Return to the oven. Every 20 minutes, baste and re-glaze with the rosemary brush, picking up marmalade and tray juices each time. Repeat for around 1 hour total in the oven from this point.

    ~60 min

  9. Rest the gammon on a board. While still warm, brush over any last remnants of marmalade and dust with another round of cracked pepper. Slice and serve with mash, bubble and squeak, salads or as a buffet centrepiece.

    ~5 min

Frequently asked

Can I skip the oven glaze step entirely?
No, this is where the recipe stops being a slow cooker gammon and becomes Jamie's roast ham. The marmalade and black pepper only set and caramelise under direct dry heat. Without it you have a perfectly fine boiled ham, but not this dish.
Do I really need to soak the gammon first?
Jamie's method assumes a fully salt-cured joint, and the 1 to 2 hour cold water rest is the safety valve that stops the finished ham being too salty. If your supplier flags theirs as unsmoked and lightly cured you can shorten it, but don't skip.
Extraction notes (transparency): Carrot, celery, garlic, bouquet garni, orange zest, peppercorn, black pepper, marmalade and rosemary quantities are not stated in the source. Servings inferred from a 4 to 4.5 kg gammon. The skin trimming and fat scoring steps remain unchanged from Jamie's method.