Christmas Ham first time Q-view

tatts4life

Smoke Blower

Original poster

Mar 12, 2013

91

12

Silver Spring, MD

• Dec 16, 2014

• #1

So this will be my third time smoking a ham. First time turned out awesome. Second one was sort of ho hum because it was my first true fresh ham and it didn't turn out how I had expected. ANYWAYS, This time I bought a ready to cook almost 13 pound ham like what I think I got last year.

Here is a before picture after I took it out of the brine because I forgot a before picture. It's got a little bit of the fennel seed and mustard seed which is part of the brine stuck to it.

image.jpg

• tatts4life
• Dec 16, 2014

The brine is salt, sugar, a lot of mustard seed, a lot of fennel seed, a big onion, celery, red pepper flakes, and a ton and a half of garlic cloves, and a few bay leaves.

image.jpg

• tatts4life
• Dec 16, 2014

Here's the ham sitting in the bag of brine before I put the cooler lid on.

image.jpg

• tatts4life
• Dec 16, 2014

I'm gonna let it sit until Christmas morning and then start smoking it around 7 for a 7 o'clock dinner.

I'll make sure I post more picture Christmas when I start cooking it.

 

bigtrain74

Master of the Pit

OTBS Member

SMF Premier Member

Feb 23, 2009

1,218

34

Springfield, Ma

• Dec 16, 2014

• #2

Oh man... I dont want to wait for Christmas!

 

gary s

Gone but not forgotten. RIP

OTBS Member

Jan 6, 2011

26,255

4,705

• Dec 16, 2014

• #3

I'll be watching

Gary

 

tatts4life

Smoke Blower

Original poster

Thread starter

Mar 12, 2013

91

12

Silver Spring, MD

• Dec 18, 2014

• #4

So I do have one question when it comes to putting on a glaze. The recipe I'm following is for cooking in an oven and talks about times and not temperature. What I was wondering is at what time in the smoking/cooking process do I add the glaze? If I'm cooking to an IT of 165 is there a time or temp I should add the glaze?

 

tatts4life

Smoke Blower

Original poster

Thread starter

Mar 12, 2013

91

12

Silver Spring, MD

• Dec 25, 2014

• #5

Merry Christmas everybody. Can I have a do over for today? First off most of the family is sick with a stomach bug and the big dinner is canceled until Monday. Second my smoker decided to give me hell today. I plugged it in for an hour to get the smoke going good and strong while I got the have ready. Well when I go out and look it's smoking away. So I put the ham in. A little later I go and check, NO SMOKE! I check the chips and the bastards havent even started smoking. It was the crap burning off the smoker. So I rasie the temp to get the chips smoking, the manufacturer says 20 minutes on high will not raise the temp of the meat enough to affect the cooking. Well something was going on because the chips weren't smoking and the meat temp was rising too fast for my taste. So I had to put the ham in the oven to continue to cook at the smoker temp while I got the chips going. OVER AN HOUR LATER STILL NO SMOKE! Meat was doing fine in the oven though. My dad and I tried one last trick and FINALLY a the chips were lit and staying lit and smoking.

Here are the shots so far for the day.

Going in the cage. Notice the lack of smoke. Stupid crap

image.jpg

• tatts4life
• Dec 25, 2014

And this is what it looks 6 hours in at 130 degrees

image.jpg

• tatts4life
• Dec 25, 2014

I'm getting ready to put on my honey mustard glaze now and will post a picture when that has been going for a little bit.

 

tatts4life

Smoke Blower

Original poster

Thread starter

Mar 12, 2013

91

12

Silver Spring, MD

• Dec 25, 2014

• #6

Here it is with the honey mustard glaze on. You can see the meat has pulled back from the bone already.

image.jpg

• tatts4life
• Dec 25, 2014

Next up will be when I pull it out.

 

tatts4life

Smoke Blower

Original poster

Thread starter

Mar 12, 2013

91

12

Silver Spring, MD

• Dec 25, 2014

• #7

The finished product. This years batch tasted awesome

image.jpg

• tatts4life
• Dec 25, 2014

image.jpg

• tatts4life
• Dec 25, 2014

Took a slice off to show what it looks like

image.jpg

• tatts4life
• Dec 25, 2014

Some of the left overs will be turned into ham and bean soup.

I want to go out and buy another ham and cook it now.

 

dirtsailor2003

Epic Pitmaster

OTBS Member

Oct 4, 2012

21,947

4,224

Bend Oregon

• Dec 26, 2014

• #8

Tasty looking ham! Sorry you had some issues, but that's smoking! What kind of smoker is that? As for glazing I usually try and do that the last hour, which depending on the cut and the IT I am cooking to can be anywhere from 20-30 degrees below the finished IT you are looking to achieve. So if I was shooting for say an IT of 145, I'd start glazing at 115-120 probably.

 

tatts4life

Smoke Blower

Original poster

Thread starter

Mar 12, 2013

91

12

Silver Spring, MD

• Dec 26, 2014

• #9

This is the smoker I own CHAR-BROIL TRU-INFRARED THE BIG EASY 2-IN-1 ELECTRIC SMOKER & ROASTER.

My two biggest complaints are 1) small awkward cooking basket. It's barrel shaped so it limits the size of meats I can cook. And the amount too. I can't cook a turkey and ham at the same time. 2) the wood chip holder is small v shaped to fit between the heating coils. And I have to keep checking the wood every 30-40 minutes to makes sure it's still going strong or needs more added. Also if I wanted to mod it and add my own mailbox mod I would need some sort of funnel thing to tape onto the outside since its a weird v shape. I'll post a picture of it some time.

As for the glaze that's about what I ended up doing. I'm sad I dumped the little bit of glaze I had left over. It would of made a nice dip during dinner.

 

tatts4life

Smoke Blower

Original poster

Thread starter

Mar 12, 2013

91

12

Silver Spring, MD

• Dec 30, 2014

• #10

1 bag of dried 15 bean mix, some chili powder, a can of diced tomatoes, a pound of the left over ham cubed into small pieces, and the bone from the ham and you have a ham and bean soup that doesn't last more then a few days. Thank goodness I have enough ham to do two batches this year.

image.jpg

• tatts4life
• Dec 30, 2014

I just hope the store I bought the ham from can special order ready to cook ham whenever I need it. I would like to cook this ham other times of the year other then Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

 

gary s

Gone but not forgotten. RIP

OTBS Member

Jan 6, 2011

26,255

4,705

• Dec 30, 2014

• #11

Looks tasty

gary

 

tatts4life

Smoke Blower

Original poster

Thread starter

Mar 12, 2013

91

12

Silver Spring, MD

• Mar 29, 2015

• #12

So went to the grocery store and saw that my favorite hams were in stock so I picked one up to cook for Easter. What's funny is it's such a huge hit with the families that I jokingly told my wife I wanted to by a bunch to store in her dads new freezer. Now she's really thinking about asking her dad when she sees him next. Having this kind of ham any other time then thanksgiving or Christmas seems weird. But it tastes so good that I dream about when I can have it again all year long.