Had an emergency smoke this morning. SWMBO called from work at 9:00. It hasn't been the best year where she works so instead of taking families to a nice restaurant at the end of the year, the owners planned an in office pot luck. They bought three spiral sliced hams but didn't think about how to heat them up. We lived closest to the office (at about 25 minutes) so they asked her to heat the hams and she passed that request along to me. ;) She was going to bring them home and I would return them when they were warm.
But I (thought I) had a better idea. :D I could heat them on site using my WSM. So I loaded everything I could think of in the back of my truck and headed for their site. On the way I pondered the fact that this would be the coldest weather I smoked in - about 17° F and windy. It was 11:00 by the time I got the meat on the WSM. They were about 8 lb hams and the directions called for 12 min/lb at 325. The hams were supposed to be foiled too and I hadn't thought to bring foil. But I set up with water in the bowl so I hoped that that would keep the hams from drying out too much.
At 1:00 PM the meat had reached 75° F at the center and with hungry troops, they came off the smoker to be served. They weren't really as warm as they were supposed to be, but since they were fully cooked to begin with, that wasn't too big a problem.
I was surprised how well they came out. I used some hickory and black walnut for smoking wood and that added a really nice smoky taste to the cured ham. For the number of hams we had vs. the number of people we served (and the quantity of ham that was eaten,) I could tell they liked it. :D
Point is, I would not ordinarily think of using the smoker to heat precooked ham, but I tried it in a pinch and it was certainly worth the effort!
-walt
But I (thought I) had a better idea. :D I could heat them on site using my WSM. So I loaded everything I could think of in the back of my truck and headed for their site. On the way I pondered the fact that this would be the coldest weather I smoked in - about 17° F and windy. It was 11:00 by the time I got the meat on the WSM. They were about 8 lb hams and the directions called for 12 min/lb at 325. The hams were supposed to be foiled too and I hadn't thought to bring foil. But I set up with water in the bowl so I hoped that that would keep the hams from drying out too much.
At 1:00 PM the meat had reached 75° F at the center and with hungry troops, they came off the smoker to be served. They weren't really as warm as they were supposed to be, but since they were fully cooked to begin with, that wasn't too big a problem.
I was surprised how well they came out. I used some hickory and black walnut for smoking wood and that added a really nice smoky taste to the cured ham. For the number of hams we had vs. the number of people we served (and the quantity of ham that was eaten,) I could tell they liked it. :D
Point is, I would not ordinarily think of using the smoker to heat precooked ham, but I tried it in a pinch and it was certainly worth the effort!
-walt
