This recipe for gammon cooked in the Instant Pot with ginger beer & rooibos is my new favourite way to prepare this Christmas dish. The cooking broth – which includes classic flavourings of carrot, celery, bay leaves and onion, is brought to spicy-sweet life with ginger beer. The addition of earthy Rooibos tea gives it a delicious depth and dark colour.

Instant Pot gammon with ginger beer & rooibos

The cooking liquid is such an elixir I had to use it in the making of the glaze and saved the rest for future use. I think it would make an amazing base for ramen or as a stock to poach things in.

This recipe like most things in the Instant Pot is super easy. You literally bang it all in and press play. At this time of year and when things are crazy busy, this is pure heaven.

Can you make gammon in advance?

Gammon can be cooked in advance and then glazed on the day. It is perfectly acceptable to serve your glazed gammon at room temperature.

How to cook your gammon on the stovetop

If you don’t have an Instant Pot you can cook this gammon on the stovetop. Place the gammon in a large pot, cover with water and bring it to a boil. Discard the water and place it back in the pot and cover it with all the other ingredients. Increase the quantity of ginger beer from 1 litre to 1.5 litres and make sure the gammon is covered in liquid.

Top up with more water if necessary. Bring this to a boil and then turn it to its lowest setting and allow it to simmer. You will need to simmer for 20 minutes per 500gms of meat. When it is finished, turn off the heat and allow the gammon to cool in the pot with the liquid.

The best Instant Pot gamoon recipe with ginger beer and rooibos

For my other Instant Pot recipes:

Confit duck legs with cherry sauce

Lamb shanks with red wine & rosemary

Instant Pot crispy pork belly

Traditional South African Bootie with spicy fragrant rice made in the Instant Pot

Vietnamese caramel salmon

Ostrich steak tagliata

*Cooks Notes ~ I made the glaze on the stovetop but you could easily make it in the Instant Pot on the Sauté setting.

Prep Time:15

Cook Time:1 5

Ingredients

1 large smoked gammon approx 1.5kg – 2.5kg
4 rooibos teabags
750 ml strong ginger beer
2 celery stalks
2 medium carrots
1 small white onion
1 tsp allspice berries crushed
½ tsp black peppercorns
½ tsp cloves
3 bay leaves

Honey & mustard gammon glaze:

1.5 cups of cooking broth
¼ cup of honey
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Pinch of cloves

Instructions

Bring the gammon to room temperature and remove all the outer casings including string. Boil the kettle.
Heat 1 cup (250ml) of the ginger beer in a jug in the microwave until hot and then add a cup of boiling water. Add the 4 Rooibos teabags to the liquid and allow it to infuse for at least 10 minutes. Remove the tea bags.
Roughly chop the celery, onion and carrots and place at the bottom of the Instant Pot. Put the gammon on top of the vegetables and then add the bay leaves and spices. Pour the 2 cups of tea mixture and the remaining 500ml of ginger beer over the gammon and adjust the vent to the sealing setting. Set the timer to the time necessary and then cook manual pressure on HIGH. Allow 15 minutes per 500gms of gammon, so 2 kgs of gammon will cook for 60 minutes.
Cook the gammon and then allow for a natural release of pressure. Remove and set aside. Strain the solids out of the cooking broth.
To make the glaze, put 1.5 cups of the strained cooking broth into a small pot and bring this to a boil. Add the cloves and honey and cook this down until it has thickened. This will take around 30 minutes or longer. Add the mustard around halfway through and stir to ensure it is incorporated. The glaze should thicken even more once it’s off the heat.
When you are ready to serve/glaze the gammon, remove the thick outer fat layer from the gammon and cut a crisscross pattern into the fat. Place it on an oven tray under a hot grill ensuring that it is not too close to the element. Drop the oven rack to low if necessary. Once about half of the fat has started to render off, start brushing the glaze over the gammon and return to the grill. Keep a close eye and keep basting it a couple more times. Remove and set aside to serve either straight away or at room temperature a little later. Serve the leftover glaze on the side.
Decorate the serving platter with fresh bay leaves, rosemary, pomegranates or grilled peaches.

Author: Sam Linsell

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11 Comments

Gammon in an Instant Pot with ginger beer? Wow! Best gammon ever. So easy, so tasty, so different. Thank you Sam!

I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe

I made this gammon this weekend as a ‘practice round’ for our proper Christmas meal.
I did the entire thing in my brand new Instant Pot Duo Crisp – the pressure cooking, the glaze in Saute mode, and the grilling using the air fryer lid on Broil (Grill) mode.
Turned out AMAZING! We all can’t wait to try it again for Christmas lunch 😀

This looks and sounds sooooo good! I can’t wait to try this – Is there a way to print your recipes?

Hi Jan – most of my recipes are created using a printable recipe card. I will update the gammon to be printable too.

This was most definitely not my first time using my beloved instant pot, but the first time ever cooking gammon. I’ve always thought of gammon as rather dry in texture. So many other recipes looked sickly sweet, until I came across this one. This recipe worked out perfectly for Christmas this year – first try! Woolworths gammon, which just fitted in the instant pot (didn’t think to check that beforehand), but came out beautifully! Served it with an apple sauce. Thank-you for your recipe! It was appreciated (and still being appreciated) by all!

Thanks Bronwyn – I’m so glad you enjoyed the gammon 🙂

Hi Sam,
I’m being a pain in the a$$ because I just posted on your FB page as well. I’d love to make this for Christmas day here in California. It’s my understanding a gammon is an uncooked ham. I only have access to ham. How long would I cook this in my InstantPot? Many thanks and here’s wishing you a Very Merry Christmas!

Hi Sharon, sorry I didn’t reply on Facebook, for some bizarre reason I can’t access my comments on that reel. Gammon is cured and sometimes smoked uncooked ham. Ham is normally cooked pork leg. They are pretty similar. In my recipe, I give guidelines on how long to cook the gammon or ham in the Instant Pot for. Merry Christmas.