Cuts · UK butchery
Gammon steak
A slice of cured hind leg. The curing is the defining property rather than the anatomy: salt through the meat and usually sugar on the surface, both of which change how it behaves over fire.
Known as
The same muscle carries different names in different butchery systems, and some of those names mean different cuts elsewhere. Where a name is ambiguous, BBQHQ says so rather than picking one.
- United Kingdom
- Gammon steak
- United States
- Ham steak
What to ask a butcher for
- United States: Gammon steak in Britain; ham steak in the United States.
Where it comes from on the animal
Pork leg (gammon and ham)
Leg · high use · connective tissue: moderate
The hind leg. Most of what reaches a British counter from here has been cured rather than sold fresh, which is why the cooking questions about it are curing questions — salt already through the meat, sugar on the surface — rather than anatomy ones.
Muscles: Biceps femoris, Semimembranosus, Semitendinosus, Quadriceps
Asking a butcher for it
Named the way uk butchery names it. If the counter does not recognise the name, the anatomy is the fallback: ask for the cut by where it comes from.
- What to say
- Gammon steak, or Ham steak (US) depending where you are.
- If that draws a blank
- Ask for leg — the muscle is Biceps femoris, Semimembranosus, Semitendinosus, Quadriceps.
- What to specify
- Thickness, which governs the timing more than weight does — the usual range is 10–20 mm. Typical weight is 150–250 g.
What it is suited to
Derived from how hard the muscle works and how much connective tissue it carries, which is the pairing that decides whether a cut wants a fire under it or beside it. BBQHQ does not rank cuts and does not name a best one.
- Moderate connective tissue: it will take either approach, and the two give genuinely different results rather than one being a compromise.
- A hard-working muscle, which is why it carries the tissue it does and why it rewards patience.
BBQHQ holds cooking evidence for this cut as gammon steak.
What to use instead
BBQHQ has established no substitute for this cut. That is a statement about what has been checked rather than a claim that none exists.
Asking for it in another country
BBQHQ has not established how this cut maps to other butchery systems.
The UK side of these mappings rests on AHDB’s published cutting specifications, which BBQHQ has read. The US side does not: USDA’s Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications and the Beef Checkoff cut pages both refuse automated access, so no mapping here reaches “same cut” across two butchery systems. See the open question.
Typical size
150–250 g