First Ham I need help!!!

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java62

Newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2012
5
10
Hello Everyone,

Here are photos of my first ham. I believe I brined it correctly it tastes great, only one problem it has this black outer crust that is

extremely bitter. When I cut this off the ham tastes fantastic. I live in Costa Rica so finding smoking wood is difficult. I used coffee wood which is what the locals use to roast chicken with. Could this be the problem, or am I doing something else wrong. I smoked it at 225 for 4 hours to and internal temp of 160. Should be 145 but it is my first one. Any help is greatly appreciated.



 
Too much smoke.....    Looks like the ham was wet on the outside and you didn't form a pellicle before smoking....

Use smaller chunks of wood and fewer chunks...  maybe try 1 chunk at a time....  

It's hard to believe that ham was done in 4 hours...    I would think 16 hours or longer would be normal....
 
This might be a dumb question but here it goes.... I thought coffee plants were small plants that grew in the shade. I didn't think they grew large enough to produce any sort of hardwood that you could smoke with. Is that not the case or did you use the small branches as your smoking wood?
 
Thanks everyone for your help too much smoke I think is tge problem I will try again soon I'll keep you posted. By the way the use the coffee root here they are quite large and super hard.
 
 
This might be a dumb question but here it goes.... I thought coffee plants were small plants that grew in the shade. I didn't think they grew large enough to produce any sort of hardwood that you could smoke with. Is that not the case or did you use the small branches as your smoking wood?
Some also smoke with grape vines so don't think smoking = hardwood only.
 
Java62,

The smoker that you have is an insulated or appears to be an insulated unit.  These are extremely efficient and smoke with wood amounts measured in ounces.  I just bought one very similar and a ham would use around 5 oz. to 6 oz. of wood. 
 
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