26# Fresh Ham

HendersonTRKing

Did this last year for a family holiday brunch and it got rave reviews. Now it's a tradition.

Skinned, trimmed down to about 22# and it's now a bucket o' ham in brine for 11-ish days. Pix prolly out of order, but you'll get the idea. 

HendersonTRKing

Whoooo hoooooo!  Out of the brine, into the fridge.  T-minus 3 days to egg!

Will go on after midnight, early Sunday morning, when we get home from a holiday party.  Adds a degree of difficulty factor and some danger of not sticking the landing.  Danger is my middle name!  (But wish me luck anyway!)

JustineCaseyFeldown

i find they benefit from leaving a little fat on them after taking the skin off, but some come with much thicker fat than others. 

how are you planning on cooking it?

HendersonTRKing

JustineCaseyFeldown said:

i find they benefit from leaving a little fat on them after taking the skin off, but some come with much thicker fat than others. 

how are you planning on cooking it?

Did one last year about the same way and it was delish -- went aggressive on the fat cap before and figured I'd do it again rather than reinvent the squeal.

Gonna smoke it with hickory and pecan at 225 til IT of 150 or so.  Will glaze and add pineapple for last hour or 2.  It'll go on late-late-late Saturday night/Sunday morning -- also same as last year, but hoping to be maybe not so overserved at the party we're going to prior to the cook.  

Will post updates just cuz.

buzd504

What's in the brine?

HendersonTRKing

buzd504 said:

What's in the brine?

Kosher salt, dark brown sugar, curing salt, peppercorns, ginger, apple cider, juicing oranges, some other stuff that was in reach . . . water and ice to ensure it was sufficiently cooled down after heating to dissolve the granular ingredients.  Took it out last night after 12 days in the soup; worries about residue at the bottom of the bucket turned out to be unfounded.  Sucker was heavy to move, tho!

saluki2007

Looks like a great start.  Will be standing by.

PoppasGrill

Is there a reason to soak it so long, or just a preference?

JustineCaseyFeldown

he cured it.  was an uncured leg roast, now a traditional 'city ham' or 'ham'.


(confusion arises sometimes because the uncured leg is also properly referred to as 'the ham', a cut of meat, even when it is uncured/fresh)

HendersonTRKing

PoppasGrill said:

Is there a reason to soak it so long, or just a preference?

It's a cure, with pink salt (nitrite) -- without it, you end up with roast pork, not ham.  Guidelines for brining time vary, but at least 7 days seems to be standard.  For a 26 pound beast, I wanted to go about 1/2 day per pound.  

Amazing Ribs is a good resource if you're thinking of taking this on:

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/curing_ham.html

buzd504

HendersonTRKing said:

buzd504 said:

What's in the brine?

Kosher salt, dark brown sugar, curing salt, peppercorns, ginger, apple cider, juicing oranges, some other stuff that was in reach . . . water and ice to ensure it was sufficiently cooled down after heating to dissolve the granular ingredients.  Took it out last night after 12 days in the soup; worries about residue at the bottom of the bucket turned out to be unfounded.  Sucker was heavy to move, tho!

Cool, thanks!

HendersonTRKing

Happy Sunday, All!

Ham went on around 130 am. Glazed and pineappled around 7 am, at 135 IT (before thermopen suggested I needed to move the probe to a thicker part of the beast). Got to 145 IT around 8 am. Guests at 1 pm. Looks and smells pretty, pretty good. Sliced pix and reviews to follow!

gmac

Beauty man. Looks awesome. 

NPHuskerFL

Looking good bud!!!  I opted on not curing fresh this year and went with a spiral cut precooked ham.  It's hard to beat a homecured one since you get to control the flavor profile start to finish.  But, it's a labor of love.  I may do some around Easter or Christmas next year.

MotownVol

Wow.  Looks great.   I love smoking hams but have never been brave enough to take on one that is not pre cured.

HendersonTRKing

Turned out great. Next time I'm definitely going to inject -- some of the deep interior didn't quite "ham". But the majority was great. @NPHuskerFL you're my inspiration on this cook!  

Didn't get a pic til most of the pile was consumed. But here's a late shot -- you'll get the idea. 

JacksDad

This is truly a beautiful thing... Thanks for posting the whole process! 

Where did you buy the ham? Was it a special order item from the butcher? 

HendersonTRKing

JacksDad said:

This is truly a beautiful thing... Thanks for posting the whole process! 

Where did you buy the ham? Was it a special order item from the butcher? 

Thx so much. It's a real crowd pleaser, but you gotta plan ahead. Like 3 weeks. Plus a couple days (at least here) to order from the butcher.  "Natural ham -- uncured" was what the butcher called it. Tried to get a 20 pounder but 26 is what came through. It wasn't terribly expensive, either. 

GrillSgt

Looks awesome. I had looked around for a recipe for what we call a green ham. Perfect. Thanks