Gammon steaks take six minutes in a frying pan and the parsley sauce barely takes longer, so this is one of the quickest dinners in Meat Feasts. The recipe serves 4 at around 550 calories with 200g steaks, and the headnote says to “forget your pineapple rings” because the sauce is all you need.
The parsley sauce starts by simmering the parsley stems, bay leaves, sliced onion, and peppercorns in milk for 10 minutes before straining. That infused milk goes into a roux, and the chopped leaves get stirred in at the end so they stay bright green rather than turning grey from overcooking.
Three minutes per side is the limit, because gammon dries out fast once the protein tightens and there is no way to rescue an overcooked steak. The headnote warns “take care not to overcook your gammon or you’ll look like a hamateur” which is fair advice for a steak this thin.
Hairy Bikers Gammon Steaks Recipe
Description
Thick gammon steaks fried in olive oil and butter for three minutes a side, served under a proper parsley sauce made from infused milk with parsley stems, bay, onion, and peppercorns. A lighter 334-calorie Dieters version using cornflour instead of a roux is compared in the FAQs below.
Ingredients
For the Parsley Sauce:
For the Steaks:
Instructions
- Infuse the milk: Pour the milk into a saucepan and add the parsley stems, bay leaves, sliced onion, and peppercorns. Heat until just below boiling, then take off the heat and leave the flavours to infuse while the milk cools.
- Make the roux sauce: Melt the 30g of butter in a clean pan, stir in the flour, and cook for a couple of minutes until the raw flour taste has gone and the mixture has browned slightly. Strain the infused milk and add it gradually, stirring constantly until you have a smooth, creamy sauce. Season with salt and white pepper, then finely chop the parsley leaves and stir them in.
- Fry the steaks: Heat the olive oil and butter in a large frying pan until the butter has melted and you can feel the heat rising when you hold your hand above the pan. Add the steaks and cook for 3 minutes on each side. Cook in two batches if your pan is not large enough for all four.
- Serve: Place the gammon steaks on warmed plates with the parsley sauce ladled over the top, and pour the rest into a jug for the table.
FAQs
How do you cook gammon steaks in a frying pan?
Heat olive oil and a knob of butter over a medium-high heat until the butter melts and the pan feels hot above it. Lay the steaks in and cook for exactly 3 minutes without moving them, then flip and give them 3 minutes on the other side.
Do not press the steaks down with a spatula, because that squeezes out the juices and dries the meat. Most supermarket gammon steaks are thin enough that 3 minutes is plenty, but thicker cuts from a butcher might need an extra minute per side.
Can you cook gammon steaks in the oven?
Yes, and the oven gives a more even cook if you are feeding a crowd because you can fit all four on one tray. Lay the steaks on a lightly oiled baking tray and cook at 200°C/Fan 180°C for 12 to 15 minutes, turning once halfway through.
The frying pan gives better colour and flavour from the browning though, so the oven method is a backup rather than an upgrade. A good compromise is searing for a minute each side in a hot pan, then finishing in the oven at 180°C for 8 minutes.
How many calories are in a gammon steak?
A 200g gammon steak on its own is roughly 260 calories before any oil or sauce goes on it. This recipe adds olive oil, butter, and a roux-based parsley sauce which brings the total to about 550 calories per serving.
The Hairy Dieters version cuts that to 334 calories by snipping all the fat off with scissors and using cornflour instead of a roux. The sauce swaps to semi-skimmed milk and just 1 teaspoon of sunflower oil replaces the butter. The sauce still uses infused milk for flavour, so it tastes closer to the full version than you would expect.
Do you need to soak gammon steaks before cooking?
Most supermarket steaks are mild enough to cook straight from the packet, but check the label because some need soaking for up to 12 hours. Traditionally cured or dry-cured steaks are the ones most likely to be too salty without a soak.
If you forget to soak or are not sure, put the steaks in a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes before cooking. That short soak removes enough surface salt to make a noticeable difference, even if it does not fix a heavily cured steak completely. If you want to serve the steaks with a traditional side, pease pudding is the classic British pairing.
Why use parsley stems in the sauce?
The stems carry more concentrated flavour than the leaves, which is why the recipe infuses them in the milk and discards them before making the roux. Throwing the stems away and only using the leaves is the most common mistake in parsley sauce, because it halves the herb flavour.
The leaves go in at the very end, after the sauce is off the heat, so they keep their bright green colour. Cooking parsley leaves in a hot sauce for too long turns them grey, and grey parsley sauce looks unappetising no matter how good it tastes.
