Ham and gammon both come from the leg of a pig and are both cured, but ham is generally sold ready to eat, sliced cold for sandwiches, while gammon is sold raw and needs cooking, typically boiled, fried or grilled as a steak. Memory hook: gammon needs the grill; ham is ready to go.
The core difference
Ham is cured pork meat, usually ready to eat cold; gammon is a cut of quick-cured pork leg that still needs cooking before serving.
- ham — cured or cooked meat from a pig's thigh: She made a sandwich with ham and mustard.
- gammon — a quick-cured pork leg cut, cooked before eating: They fried a gammon steak and served it with a fried egg.
How to tell them apart
Both words point back to the same part of the pig — its leg — but arrived in English by different routes. Ham comes from Old English hamm, which originally meant the back of the knee before it widened to cover the thigh and then the cured meat from it. Gammon comes via Old French gambon, from gambe meaning leg, and is a close cousin of the French word for ham, jambon.
In everyday British cooking, the practical difference is what you do with it: ham is typically ready to eat once bought, sliced for sandwiches or served cold on a plate, while gammon is sold raw and is boiled, fried or grilled — classically as a gammon steak topped with a fried egg and pineapple. Once gammon has been cooked, some cooks will even call the result “ham,” which is where the two words tend to blur together.
