- Jul 1, 2012
- 4
- 10
I just joined this site to thank this community for the advice on how to handle smoking a wild hog ham that a friend gave me last week. He was apparently out frog gigging Wed nite and managed to air boat "thump-thump" a couple of wild hogs. True story. So, I end up with a big ham, boned, in a cooler with no clue how to handle it. I am a veteran charcoaler and smoker type though, but I rarely resort to getting technical with thermometers and such, and had never handled wild game. I wasn't too intimidated, but I wasn't confident with a new type of meat either. I didn't want to mess with brining and such, I just wanted to drink beer next to the grill on Saturday and then eat some pulled pork. So, I scoured this site and the internet, absorbed it all, devised a plan on the most consistent advice that was out there, and executed the plan. Long story short, here is where I ended up -
1. Kept the ham on ice for 2 days in a big cooler, letting it bleed out in a garbage bag that I changed out a couple times. Surprisingly, it didn't bleed that much, so I don't know if that was even necessary. And the meat actually had a little marble to it which surprised me. That hog must have been living the good life.
2. Fired up the weber first thing saturday morning. Set up with the charcoal and oak on one side, and my water pan on the other.
3.Dried the meat and rubbed it with season salt, pepper, cayenne. I was tempted to do a mustard rub that seems popular out there, but was afraid of an overly crusty or burnt bark. Put it in a baking pan and put it on the weber over top of the water pan.
3. Smoked it heavy with oak for about 4 hours. Had a lot of trouble keeping the smoker temp under 300 degrees for those 4 hours. Damn near had to choke off the charcoal completely. I was just using a weber so temp control isn't the easiest. Everything I read said 250 degrees is where you want to be for the smoking phase for the first 4 hours.
4. Pulled it off after 4 hours. Meat temp was around 170 degrees. From what I read, that is the temp where the meat tends to get "stuck" due to the bark and moisture and etc etc. Wrapped the meat in aluminum foil after basting it with apple cider NC style baste (that I made from a recipe I found on line) and put it in the oven at 225 degrees with the goal of getting the internal temperature up to a minimum of 190 degrees but not more than 205 degrees. Basted it every hour or so. From what I read, collagen breaks down in the pork and the meat becomes tender at 190 degrees. But if you want to do pulled pork instead of sliced, then take it to 205 degrees to have it pull apart easily.
5. At about 200 degrees (5 hours later in the oven, 9+ hours total), I pulled the meat out of the oven and let it rest in foil for an hour. We used that hour to get all of the rest of the dinner fixings ready. Opened it up after an hour and did the pulling. It literally fell apart in my hands. Dressed it up with the NC style baste/sauce and rang the dinner bell for the ~dozen folks who were waiting and hungry. It was perfect. The smoke ring was one of the best I've ever had. Probably because I've never worked so hard to keep the smoking temp down under 300, I guess. maybe.
I am now the neighborhood hero. Absolutlely noone believed my story about the wild hog being harvested via airboat speed bump. I guess it sounded too far fetched to believe, and after eating, everyone agreed I had bought the pork down the street at the grocery store. I could tell the meat had a slight game taste, but if I didn't know where it came from, I probably wouldn't have noticed. Noone else did.
Just wanted to again say thanks to those on this site that generously provide so much information. I went from a wild hog novice on Tuesday, to the old pro on Saturday, solely based on the research here. I need to get a better smoker though, as far as temp control goes.
I would be interested if any of the old pros on this site could critique anything I did above that maybe should have been done differently or could have been done better.
.
1. Kept the ham on ice for 2 days in a big cooler, letting it bleed out in a garbage bag that I changed out a couple times. Surprisingly, it didn't bleed that much, so I don't know if that was even necessary. And the meat actually had a little marble to it which surprised me. That hog must have been living the good life.
2. Fired up the weber first thing saturday morning. Set up with the charcoal and oak on one side, and my water pan on the other.
3.Dried the meat and rubbed it with season salt, pepper, cayenne. I was tempted to do a mustard rub that seems popular out there, but was afraid of an overly crusty or burnt bark. Put it in a baking pan and put it on the weber over top of the water pan.
3. Smoked it heavy with oak for about 4 hours. Had a lot of trouble keeping the smoker temp under 300 degrees for those 4 hours. Damn near had to choke off the charcoal completely. I was just using a weber so temp control isn't the easiest. Everything I read said 250 degrees is where you want to be for the smoking phase for the first 4 hours.
4. Pulled it off after 4 hours. Meat temp was around 170 degrees. From what I read, that is the temp where the meat tends to get "stuck" due to the bark and moisture and etc etc. Wrapped the meat in aluminum foil after basting it with apple cider NC style baste (that I made from a recipe I found on line) and put it in the oven at 225 degrees with the goal of getting the internal temperature up to a minimum of 190 degrees but not more than 205 degrees. Basted it every hour or so. From what I read, collagen breaks down in the pork and the meat becomes tender at 190 degrees. But if you want to do pulled pork instead of sliced, then take it to 205 degrees to have it pull apart easily.
5. At about 200 degrees (5 hours later in the oven, 9+ hours total), I pulled the meat out of the oven and let it rest in foil for an hour. We used that hour to get all of the rest of the dinner fixings ready. Opened it up after an hour and did the pulling. It literally fell apart in my hands. Dressed it up with the NC style baste/sauce and rang the dinner bell for the ~dozen folks who were waiting and hungry. It was perfect. The smoke ring was one of the best I've ever had. Probably because I've never worked so hard to keep the smoking temp down under 300, I guess. maybe.
I am now the neighborhood hero. Absolutlely noone believed my story about the wild hog being harvested via airboat speed bump. I guess it sounded too far fetched to believe, and after eating, everyone agreed I had bought the pork down the street at the grocery store. I could tell the meat had a slight game taste, but if I didn't know where it came from, I probably wouldn't have noticed. Noone else did.
Just wanted to again say thanks to those on this site that generously provide so much information. I went from a wild hog novice on Tuesday, to the old pro on Saturday, solely based on the research here. I need to get a better smoker though, as far as temp control goes.
I would be interested if any of the old pros on this site could critique anything I did above that maybe should have been done differently or could have been done better.
.
