Prob a thread for Irish input, but AIBU to not know why only gammon in UK, no bacon?

[DoTheHop]

Does anyone know the difference between bacon and gammon?
I googled and it said it comes from different parts of the three little piggies.
But what's the difference exactly?
If you're Irish and living in the UK, have you adopted the gammon?
It looks paler maybe to me and maybe a little tougher in some respects.
When cooking, I boil it, like I would do with bacon and it seems similar but just not quite the same?

Can anyone butcher/Irish/English who knows their cuts of meat enlighten me on this British phenomenon?

For the UK posters, I've never really seen gammon on sale in Ireland, and vice versa for the UK?

Ham is cured, surely?

My parents would go to a traditional market stall butcher in West London and come home with gammon steaks, rashers of bacon and a big joint of bacon which was boiled, eaten hot and then cut up for dad's sandwiches for the week.

@Mumdiva99 lol

I'm going to be boiling the gammon and then cooking the cabbage in the salty/fatty water from the boiling. Proper old-school cooking.

He'll probably be polite about it, but wonder what planet I'm from.

We (As in my grandma - the template for all English Christmas dinners obviously) do christmas Turkey with pigs in blankets for christmas day and a ham (cooked gammon joint) cooked on Christmas eve and eaten cold on boxing day with left over turkey.

But not a ham with Turkey on Christmas day

we call rashers bacon

Their full name is “rashers of bacon” so everyone is right.

I’ve never really known what gammon is (Ireland).

Gammon steaks are rubbery ime.

If your my man or insane you'll drink the cabbage water after and call it a treat

Lol, what I do with the cabbage water is pour it over the spuds as a sort of glorious salty, fatty, cabbage juice!

This could be fun.

Turkey & ham (gammon) really common here in the UK for Xmas dinner.
I think a bacon joint and a gammon joint are the same thing and when I make bacon and cabbage like my Irish grandmother did I use a gammon joint.

@cccameron So it's not unheard of then. This guy is English English, no Irish heritage, so it will be new to him I suspect.

He's in for a treat! shock

I;ve just bought my Xmas Gammon joint (unsmoked) to roast on Xmas Eve........

Sounds very err...... Irish. But where are the potatoes?

Have a lovely meal.

I've seen bacon chops - so maybe a cm thick - here in the UK. But not aware of a whole joint of bacon.

I think the texture of bacon is softer and less fibrous than gammon.

I'll cook a gammon joint in Xmas Eve, the Turkey with sausagemeat stuffing on Xmas day.
Cold cuts and pies and other delights to follow in the days after.

gammon comes from the word jamon, which i also where our word for ham comes from.

My mum used to get bacon joints and I think they were different to gammon. I have only ever seen gammon. I think bacon joints were better (she called them bacon joints, and bacon (rashers) were bacon). We are English not Irish, though possibly have Irish in our family...nobody really knows much about our background.

My input..(I'm half Irish)
Surely it's just in the name? In Ireland we have boiled bacon & cabbage but the 'bacon' joint is the same as if we'd buy a gammon joint in England. So essentially boiled gammon? I still call it boiled bacon regardless!

Most of the difference are when you bought from the butcher. So a bacon joint would be before slicing. You could tell the difference between the gammon joint and bacon joint by the fat. It was quite common for both joints but my mother was Irish and many families around us also Irish. It also was cost effective as the joints from the butchers cheaper than a huge turkey so the meat could be spread out for the larger families. It has disappeared now and gone to Boxing Day gammon.

I thought gammon was leg and bacon was belly - ham is cooked gammon. Although I’m a veggie so what do I know?

Am half Irish and always had bacon and cabbage at my nannys house as a kiddo...with boiled buttered potatoes.

I’m with ya, OP. This has long confused me.

My impression is that a gammon joint is tougher than a bacon joint, so its plausible they’re from different parts of the pig.

Or maybe the Irish are just better at cooking it

Laurie apparently the bacon joint is belly/back and gammon is leg.

Not sure what difference that makes, but there you have it.

Depends on whether little piggy had ribbed abs or whether he was a porky little fellow I suppose.

Good to know DoTheHop

Boil your ham or bacon in diet coke. Its bloody delish.

I'm guessing (not knowing how much the piggy works out), that bacon would be fattier, whereas gammon might be more muscular? He could have spent hours on the treadmill you know.... Working those quads... Whereas lazy assed Miss Piggy might have a gloriously fat mid-quarter. So maybe more of a rare phenomenon.
In any case, I'll proceed with poisoning my guest with my fatty salty cabbagy water on his spuds.

We boil a knuckle of bacon with cabbage.

A very posh English man told me his family buy that for their dogs, and didn't believe it was eaten by people at all .

Boil your ham or bacon in diet coke. Its bloody delish

Baaaarf. Imagine the cabbage in that aspartame sickly shit

I'm sure he will absolutely love it OP.