Smoking a FRESH ham

gusibole · Post by **gusibole** » April 1st, 2012, 9:44 am

Has anyone tried their hand at curing and smoking a fresh ham. If so, would you please enlighten me!

YouTube · Post by **Frank_Cox** » April 1st, 2012, 6:02 pm

I have never done that. I would love to see a thread of that. I have smoked a pre-cured ham before and it was awesome!

gusibole · Post by **gusibole** » April 1st, 2012, 6:52 pm

damn that looks good. The fresh ham idea was a discussion we had at work friday. No one, for the lack of a better term has the guts to try it. Once I learn my smoker I may have to give it a go!

YouTube · Post by **Frank_Cox** » April 1st, 2012, 8:20 pm

Lots of people do it. The only part I don't know is the cure part for the ham. I will try to find something to help.

maccas66 · Post by **maccas66** » April 2nd, 2012, 2:37 am

I`d be keen to know as well!

YouTube · Post by **Frank_Cox** » April 2nd, 2012, 4:37 pm

I found this on Komodo Joes website and it was submitted to them By: Ralph Amos, Roswell, GA
So this is not my recipe nor have I ever tried to do this before.....

Ingredients

Water
Brown sugar
Vinegar
Sodium nitrate
Kosher salt
Fresh cracked pepper
wood chips
orange juice
apple juice
wood chips/chunks

Instructions:
Step 1
Buy a fresh ham leg (uncured pork), a half fresh ham, or a piece of fresh ham in whatever size you're comfortable with. You can get from a local farmer or food service company. I am using the term ham here to refer to the hind leg section of a pig - you must buy fresh, not already cured pork. The size doesn’t matter; buy it as big or small as you are comfortable with and make sure it will fit on your grill.

Step 2
Prepare the brine- this is what keeps your ham from drying out and gives it the pink color that you see in a typical bought ham.
• 2 quarts of water
• ¾ cup of kosher salt
• 1 cup of brown sugar (1 packed cup)
• 4 teaspoons of pink salt (sodium nitrate or insta cure #1 (4 teaspoons)– you will not find in a normal store – you can get online, I got mine from a local chef
• Anything else you want to throw in is fine. Orange juice, molasses, apple juice, cider vinegar.
Stir all ingredients together until dissolved. I heat mine and stir it up. This brine can be multiplied as needed, and if you are doing a whole ham, you will probably need to double it.
Optional, I also injected the brine into my ham every half inch or so.

Step 3
Place your pork in a bowl or pot that is large enough to hold the meat completely submerged in the brine, but one small enough to fit in your fridge (or pack in cooler and pack in ice, must stay at 40 degrees or cooler. Add the cold brine to the pork, and lay a heavy plate on top of the floating meat to keep it submerged.
Keep it in the fridge or cooler until done. It will cure at the rate of 2 pounds per day. A large ham will take about a week.

Step 4
Rinse it off and prepare it in any way you enjoy. I ground fresh black pepper and mixed with kosher salt and rubbed all over the ham.
Smoking the ham
• Set up smoker
• I use wood chunks and wood chips. I usually will mix different types of wood. Chunks tend to last much longer.
• Bring temp to 225 degrees and maintain
• Once the smoker is smoking, place ham on and shut the lid
• Get ready this is going to be a long but fulfilling day
• My ham was 22lbs and took about 14 hrs to get to 155 degrees. Around the 10hr point I started checking the internal temp every hour or so with a meat thermometer.
• Some say it’s completely safe to eat at the 140 degree mark but I cooked mine to 155.
• For the last 30 minutes, I put on my ham glaze and dressed with pineapples and cherries.
• Double wrapped in foil and let it rest until time to eat.
• Can be served hot or at room temperature.

gusibole · Post by **gusibole** » April 2nd, 2012, 6:10 pm

Frank, thanks for posting this. I was doing some research also, and came up with the same basic curing and smoking method. Seems like instacure #1 (pink salt) is the ticket for curing. About 1 week in the brine solution is the concensus. Again thanks.

maccas66 · Post by **maccas66** » April 2nd, 2012, 6:36 pm

Thanks!, I might try a hand of pork to start with!........

YouTube · Post by **Frank_Cox** » April 2nd, 2012, 6:37 pm

no probs guy's!

Pennywise · Post by **Pennywise** » October 31st, 2016, 1:25 pm

Bringing this up again. Has anyone pulled this off yet? I have a co-worker who bought me a 20lb fresh pork belly in exchange for me smoking his ham he also purchased for Thanksgiving. The meat arrived today...and OMG! His 'ham' is a 40lb pig leg. I've no clue how to process this into a manageable size, not sure about the cure....basically the only thing I know I can do is smoke the dang thing.

BitBucket · Post by **BitBucket** » October 31st, 2016, 3:20 pm

wikihow.com has a how-to for making your own home-cured ham (www.wikihow.com/Smoke-a-Ham) that goes through the wet curing process with pink salt and the whole thing. They're talking about 1 day of curing in brine for every 2 lbs of meat, which doesn't leave you much time to get started if you wanted to go that way.

I hope I never get that popular, that's a pretty tall order in exchange for some pork belly. Good luck Pennywise!

Pennywise · Post by **Pennywise** » November 21st, 2016, 1:26 pm

Well I bought my curing salt, and that alone changed it from a thanksgiving ham to a Christmas ham...lol. By the time spiceworld.com got it to me I didn't have time to cure it.

I told him to take it to his local butcher to process the ham from the rest of the leg, and to purchase a 5 gal bucket from home depot with a lid. I will cure it in his fridge for the 2 or 3 weeks necessary and then smoke it for him and freeze it for Xmas. I'm looking forward to it, and now that I have the cure, I plan on cutting 10lbs of the pork belly into 1lb sections and making my own bacon.

Mo Smoke · Post by **Mo Smoke** » December 19th, 2016, 6:19 pm

Ok time to bump this thread back to the top of the ladder. I'm thinking about going fresh bone in ham for Christmas but after reading this old thread I may be too late.. what's the curing thing all about? I can't just inject, season, wait 24 hours and smoke that puppy for 12 hrs or however long it takes to hit 150 degrees or so?

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Post by **Pete Mazz** » December 20th, 2016, 5:59 am

You can. It's just like cooking a large picnic shoulder.

Post by **Rodcrafter** » December 20th, 2016, 7:02 pm

I haven't done that because I haven't found any. But Pete's answer would be mine unless you were going to smoke cure it like bacon.

Making memories!

Mo Smoke · Post by **Mo Smoke** » December 20th, 2016, 8:26 pm

That's what I was thinking..: good to know. So why cure a fresh ham?

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Post by **Rodcrafter** » December 20th, 2016, 9:41 pm

If you are trying to make it taste like a ham you will need to cure it. It is sorta like cooking brisket which is awesome. But if that brisket has gone through the brining process it becomes corned beef. A totally different flavor.

Making memories!

Post by **Big T** » December 21st, 2016, 12:02 am

If you are wanting the traditional tasting ham, that's the only way to get it. My wife loves cured smoked pork chops because they taste just like ham. We always smoked a whole hog for the 4th of July when I was growing up and I always wondered why it the hams didn't taste like the ones from the store, now I know. They are still delicious if you cook them right but they have a different flavor than a cured ham.

Mo Smoke · Post by **Mo Smoke** » December 21st, 2016, 11:41 am

So what does it taste like without the curing?
Pork shoulder or tenderloin maybe ? Sounds like most folks prefer cured ham.

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Squiggle · Post by **Squiggle** » December 24th, 2016, 10:06 am

I just smoked two legs for Christmas lunch & they taste a lot like pork butt, kind of not surprised though cause it's the same just at the back end.

Post by **Big T** » December 24th, 2016, 5:48 pm

It tastes like pork...lol

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » December 25th, 2016, 12:19 am

Nice Christmas lunch...

We are having a leg of lamb done low and slow in the double pan. Having an evening Chrismas meal... Man I can't wait.

Hey Squiggle, you got an ash dump happening in your grease pit?

Post by **Rodcrafter** » December 25th, 2016, 8:30 am

I use the method meat head lays out on his site my wife loves it.

Making memories!

Mo Smoke · Post by **Mo Smoke** » December 25th, 2016, 8:46 pm

I decided to go with the semi boneless whole ham.. last thing I need is to put in a lot of work to cook a great piece of meat and have to deal with an attitude because it doesn't "taste" like "ham". 1 more argument at home and I might catch a case. After today's cook, I know made the right choice. Smoked it at 225 for about 3.5 hrs, then i raised the temp to 325 - 350, put it in a pan and covered it with foil for another 1.5 hrs until temp hit 165 degrees. Came out great.

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mp4 · Post by **mp4** » December 25th, 2016, 9:14 pm

Yummy!

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