Looking for a recipe for smoking a raw ham

[tatts4life]

Gonna smoke a 5 pound ham next week and was wondering do I need to do anything with the ham before I smoke it as far as curing?

Does anybody put any rubs on their ham?

 

[davidhef88]

if you da a search on smoking a fresh or raw ham there are many threads that should be of help to you.

 

[tatts4life]

If an uncooked ham has all ready been cured do I really need to add the salt that is called for in a brine? Should I reduce the amount of salt in the brine?

 

[stevan garner]

I would treat a fresh ham just like I would a shoulder, butt, or picnic; brine with 1 cup salt and 1 cup sugar to a gallon of water.  brine at least 12 hours but I do mine for 24.  Use whatever rub you like.  Many traditionalists use just salt and pepper.  I vary in my rubs, I used for my boston butts for Thanksgiving garlic pepper and soul seasoning on one butt and on the other I used garlic pepper, lemon pepper, and finished with a generous amount of expresso coffee with hershey's cocoa.  I smoked them using orange wood and hickory nuts for 5 hours then wrapped them both in tin foil and cooked additional 2 hours.  When done and rested bone came out with one light tug.

Everyone raved at the dinner table about it being the best that I have done to date.  I am an amatuer at this smoking and own an upright brinkman electric smoker.  I would like a larger smoker, but my daddy always said,"if it's not broke don't fix it". 

I hope your ham comes out as enjoyable as your expectations.

 

[Bearcarver]

If an uncooked ham has all ready been cured do I really need to add the salt that is called for in a brine? Should I reduce the amount of salt in the brine?

If it's already cured, you can do it like in the link below:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/141903/double-smoked-hams-times-4-step-by-step

Bear

 

[tatts4life]

So I took pictures of the ham in the brine and going into the smoker. But totally forgot a picture of it cooked before I cut it. I'll post pictures later when I load them.

 

[foamheart]

 
If it's already cured, you can do it like in the link below:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/141903/double-smoked-hams-times-4-step-by-step

Bear

And you'll never do it any other way again..... it will just ruin regular hams for you.

 

[tatts4life]

I just checked the link and that was a fully cooked ham. Mine was an uncooked ham. I wanted as little flavor as possible added to the ham and be able to add my own stuff.

 

[woodcutter]

Normally the brine/curing process is done at the same time and only once. You can add spices to the brine before you put in the meat. You can add spices, glaze, pineapple etc after the brine and smoke or cook the ham the way you want.

When you put a piece of meat in a brine, salt, cure, sugar spices etc try to even out between the brine mixture and the meat. That is why brine requires time to work and different cuts of meat vary the time. If you take a ham that has been cured and put it in straight water the ingredients in the ham will try to level out the water and start leaving the meat.

You can take the cured meat out of the brine and smoke or cook it so the internal temp is 135 and remove and you will have a partially cooked ham. If you take the internal temp to 145 it is a cooked ham. A partially cooked ham needs to finish cooking until the IT is 145. Either a ham right out of the brine or a partially cooked ham can be glazed, rubbed etc while it is finishing getting to 145.

Here are a couple of good threads on a brine process.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/110799/pops6927s-wet-curing-brine

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/89979/from-hog-leg-to-easter-ham