Smoking Ham

[cogs79]

Hey everyone im new to the forum and looking forward to getting some great info from all of you. My question is im smoking a ham on turkey day and its 20lbs bone in, its not pre-cooked or cured.How long to does this baby need to be in the smoker and do i need to brine it? Oh and what temp is recommended? Thanks for any feed back i get.

 

[mballi3011]

I'm thinking you need a pillow for this one. Smoking a ham is a good thing but not good for the sleeping. A ham should take upwards of 1 1/2 per pound and I can do the math and that spells alot. About a 20 + smoke I'm sure it will be alot less but you will have a long one in front of you. I have done a few hams (whole and fresh) and I remember not much more than 18 hours or so.

coffee

 

[cogs79]

So as for curing/brine the ham is there a certain amount of time this process takes? I've seen someone saying it takes up to a week to do this process, I sure hope thats not the case, cause i gotta cook this baby wednesday.And its almost 21lbs

 

[ronp]

Are you sure it isn't a cured ham? What color is it?

 

[beerthirty]

If it is a fresh ham, uncured, then I don't think you can get it cured that fast. Most of these guys say several days to up to a week and a half to cure one. The Tender Quick package says 24 hours however I'm not sure that is really enough. You can always just smoke it and have a fresh ham. I'll bet that would be good.

 

[carpetride]

Ron does a cured ham cook faster? I've got a 16 pound uncooked Country ham that I'm planning on doing for Thursday. Assumed it would take close 1.5hrs/lb.

 

[ronp]

It all depends on the labeling and what it says. If cured I would think you could smoke to 150' or so, but do your research first. The labeling is sometimes misleading and confusing, so, always follow the label.

 

[pignit]

This thread got me doing some research and it seems that there is some confusion in terms. Some refer to the rear leg portion of a pig as a ham where others refer to it as rear leg unless it is cured... then a ham. Although picnic ham is referred to as ham it can't be a true ham even cured as a ham because it came from the front end of the pig. It seems that in the research I've done... the terms are used interchangably and hard to distinguish whether someone is talking about a rear leg portion that has been cured or not as being a ham.

My understanding is that the rear leg of a pig is a rear leg unless cured... then a ham. It would sure be nice to understand the terminology associated with the cuts. I finally got it into my head the butt comes from the shoulder... not the butt end.... after smokin a hundred of them.

Cogs..... if your whole leg portion is truely an uncured leg portion, your not gonna get it cured by Wednesday. Aint gonna happen man. Picklin and brinin would be the fastest way to cure it but your still lookin at 3 or 4 days shortest scenerio.

 

[cogs79]

Thanks guys, I just went down and bought another ham thats cured so i could smoke for Turkey day. I'll save the other for Christmas that gives time to do the curing process right.

 

[beerthirty]

My understanding is that an uncured ham is called a fresh ham. Really don't know if that is the correct term. Read somewhere that if you wanted to cure your own ham then you had to ask the butcher for a fresh ham. I just cured and smoked a couple of pork butts for Thanks giving and they are really tasty, but a little greasy. Taste like ham, looks like ham, must be ham!