Cold Smoked Ham, qview

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SmokinAl

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Jun 22, 2009
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Central Florida (Sebring)
We were at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago & were hungry for ham sandwiches. Instead of buying a few slices in the deli I found a real nice boneless half ham. No trimming needed, already cooked ready to slice. Sliced it up & it was a very good ham, but it didn't have much smoke flavor. We ate it & I decided the next time we buy one I'm going to cold smoke it. It was way to lean to hot smoke, I'm sure hot smoking would have dried it out. So here we go!

Here's the ham.


All meat, no waste, but a little pricey.


It had a very thin layer of fat, no need to trim any off.


Ready to go into the smoker. No rub, just the ham.


Into the MES on the bottom rack, no water pan.


I got this Weber cold smoker for a present a couple of years ago  & haven't used it much.

I ran out of dust for my Amazen, so I thought I'd give the Weber a try, using hickory chips.


It's getting good TBS.


Instead of rye bread, Judy made some rye bread rolls.


After 4 hours of smoke she's done. No noticeable change in color, but I can smell the smoke on it.


I wrapped it up & put it in the freezer for about 1 hour.


Then got out our small slicer, perfect size for the ham.


Sliced her up.


Got 2 nice layers of meat, still very juicy.


Judy also made some scalloped potatoes.


Now to make the sandwiches.


Nice & thick with plenty of ham. Scalloped potatoes, pickles, & olives.


I'm ready to eat.


The verdict is I definitely will do this again. The smoke flavor was just perfect.

I have never hot smoked a ham that was this juicy & had this much smoke flavor.

The only reason that I can think of is, it absorbed the smoke much quicker & deeper because it stayed moist & the meat stayed cold.

Don't know the science behind it, but I urge you all to try this.

Next time I think I may try it on a bone in ham & see how that goes.

One note: I asked Chef Jimmy about cold smoking a fully cooked ham & he said it's safe if I only smoke it for 4 hours, unless I can keep the smoker temp below 40                         degrees.That's not possible in Florida, but the good news is 4 hours is plenty. I wouldn't go longer than that even if I could. The flavor was perfect.

Thanks for looking,

Al
 
Last edited:
Awesome!

points.gif


Happy Smoking,

phatbac (Aaron)
 
Looks great Al! Don't get ham too often as
My wife doesn't like pork. But when I do I like to have a good ham sandwee. Yours looks awesome!

Points!
 
That's a beautiful looking ham, Al.  Nice and lean, just what I like.  

I'm going to try cold smoking the next one.  The last one I hot smoked, and it DID dry it out a lot--not enough to diminish our enjoyment, but noticeable.

I don't see why there would be any problem with a bone-in ham.  I'm thinking it should turn out great.  Hope so, as that's what we always buy.

On a sadder note, I'm looking at your yard and also at mine.  Mine is still somewhere under the snow--at least I hope it is.

points1.png


Gary
 
Nice Job Al !!
icon14.gif


Nice looking slices.
drool.gif


Gotta be Awesome Sammies!!!
drool.gif
---------------
points.gif


I never had any of my Double Smoked Hams dry up at all, but I keep the temp at 200° or below throughout the smoking.

One of the reasons I always hated roasting a Ham at 350° in the oven is it always used to get that hard skin on the outside. I hated that.

Bear
 
That looks great, getting hungry! I hot smoked one a couple weeks ago ,following Bear's directions from his post. It turned out great.Didn't dry out. Going to do another this week.
 
Looks great Al! Don't get ham too often as
My wife doesn't like pork. But when I do I like to have a good ham sandwee. Yours looks awesome!

Points!
Thanks DS!

We do love our sammies!!

Al
 
That's a beautiful looking ham, Al.  Nice and lean, just what I like.  

I'm going to try cold smoking the next one.  The last one I hot smoked, and it DID dry it out a lot--not enough to diminish our enjoyment, but noticeable.

I don't see why there would be any problem with a bone-in ham.  I'm thinking it should turn out great.  Hope so, as that's what we always buy.

On a sadder note, I'm looking at your yard and also at mine.  Mine is still somewhere under the snow--at least I hope it is.

points1.png


Gary
Thanks Gary!

It just started getting hot down here a couple of weeks ago. I've had the a/c on for a week now.

Thanks for the point too!

Al
 
Nice Job Al !!
icon14.gif


Nice looking slices.
drool.gif


Gotta be Awesome Sammies!!!
drool.gif
---------------
points.gif


I never had any of my Double Smoked Hams dry up at all, but I keep the temp at 200° or below throughout the smoking.

One of the reasons I always hated roasting a Ham at 350° in the oven is it always used to get that hard skin on the outside. I hated that.

Bear
Thanks for the compliments Bear!

I know what you mean about the double smoked hams we used to smoke, they had a lot of fat on them to keep them moist. But this one was lean, I mean virtually no fat at all. I figured out a way to keep it juicy though, with a killer smoke flavor.

Thanks for the point too, Buddy!

Al
That looks great, getting hungry! I hot smoked one a couple weeks ago ,following Bear's directions from his post. It turned out great. Didn't dry out. Going to do another this week.
Looks good Al,I'm jealous.
Thanks a lot guys! I really appreciate it.

Al
 
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