Smoking a Fresh Ham at Home
June 8th, 2009 - No Comments YetSince Gavin was born, I have been focusing on at-home hobbies, when I have a “free” moment or two. For those of your with kids, you know why there are quotes on there. My cousin David said it well, “I remember when weekends were for relaxing not catching up.” A month or two after the G-man was born, I bought a Char-Broil smoker at the Home Depot. It has a side fire box and for $159, I think it is probably the best bang for the buck for a non-commercial smoker. It has a pretty large smoking chamber that comes with lower and upper grills…the lowers are designed to hold charcoal if you want to use the smoking chamber as a bbq…but, they also double as more places to smoke meat.
I came across the Bay Area Meat CSA (aka BAMSCA) a month or so ago and I was able to buy a quarter of a hog that was around 200 lbs whole. I have met some very cool people who are into tinkering in the kitchen and buying quality, local meat. That kinda sounds wierd, but it is all good. Since I took the rear quarter, that means I got the “fresh ham.” A fresh ham is basically a raw ham that has not been cured, brined, smoked or cooked….raw homey. On the advice of Peter Licht (who is teaching a chacuterie class on the 21st of June) I brined the ham for 3 weeks+ before I smoked it. Ths is not an easy task as a ham from a 200lb hog is very big. You need to clean it as well as you can. Scrubbing the skin and exterior of the ham with water and probably some soap, rinse it well and then put it in a food safe plastic bucket that has your brining solution. Cover it with cold water, seal it up and put it in the fridge….oh yeah, did I mention that you need a fridge that you can put a 5 gallon bucket into? If you have pulled all of this off, you will have a brined ham. As I mentioned, I brined mine, skin on, for about 4 weeks. Over-brining can lead to a tough to chew piece of meat, but a 25+ lb ham can take 4 week of brining no problemo.
Now for the important part….the smoking. I smoked mine for about 5 hours. I wanted some smoke flavor, but I didn’t want it to be overpowering. Unfortunately, 5 hours on a ham this size is not nearly enough. The outher 1/2 inch or so of meat had some smoke flavor, but with the skin on, it is very hard to get the smoke into the meat…but, the skin kept everything nice and moist. My thoughts for round two are to smoke a similar sized ham for about 10 to 15 hours, skin on. Then put it into a 350 degree oven to finish it off (internal temp of 165 to 170 degrees F). I finished mine in the oven at 350 for a few hours, but I did not place the thermometer in a good place. I stuck it in the shank end of the ham away from the bone almost completely butting up to the end of the guage. While this gave me a good reading at the small end, the fat end was not cooked around the bone. My recommendation is to place the thermometer about 2 inches from the bone on the meaty side of the fat end. I would then probe it in a few places when you think it is ready to take out of the oven. Regardless, it is going to take a long time to cook. An alternative might be to start it in a 250 degree oven over night, then get up and smoke it for the rest of the day. I finished mine with a mixture of cane sugar and dijon (spread on with a cake spatula) and then sprinkled bread crumbs over the top. The ham was thne put back into a 425 degree oven until it was hard (about 20 minutes). You need to take the skin off and I would say most if not all of the exterior fat before putting on the mustard. That crust is amazingly good.
To recap, I would smoke a fresh ham for about 30 to 40 minutes per pound and then finish it in a 350 degree oven. Be sure to probe the ham in a few spots when you think it is ready to take out of the oven. Be sure the ham is very clean and that your bucket is sanitized before brining it….you will probably find some mold is starting to grow in the bucket when you take it out…but, don’t worry. Clean it off, soak it in some water for a few hours to pull some of the salt out and smoke that thing.