What kind of ham to get for smoking?

[devildog89]

Most of the ham I see at the local stores are already smoked, or have added water, which I read somewhere do not work great for smoking. I have never been a big fan of ham, but a friend smoked one and it was the best ham I have ever had so I want to do one soon.

 

[3montes]

Most hams you see in the grocery store are already going to be smoked and have water added. If you want a fresh one you will need to find a butcher to hook you up most likely.

I love ham on the smoker. All you're doing is basically heating it up and double smoking it. My experience is the cheaper off brand hams benefit the most from being in the smoker. The more expensive ones that have been smoked don't seem to absorb the extra smoke flavor as much.

Throwing a ham on the smoker is always a nice no fuss meal. Throw it on for a couple of hours and bring to temp and that's about it. Then you have a nice ham bone for soup later!

 

Oh, I avoid the spiral cut hams as they have a tendency to dry out. Besides I like to cut my own ham steak.

 

[devildog89]

Thanks. There are only a few actual butchers nearby, but I will check them out.

 

[gmc2003]

Ask your friend where he got his. The leftovers are great for pea soup and ham salad.

chris

 

[johnmeyer]

Someone gave me a spiral-sliced Costco ham. It was really plain. I found a "Honeybaked" recipe, and put the sugar rub from that recipe onto the ham, then used a torch to melt the glaze and carmalize it. I then put it into the smoker for about an hour with some hickory pellets in my AMNPS. I then let it sit in the fridge for a day or two to let the smoke flavor mellow.

It tastes good, but perhaps next time I will do the carmalizing after smoking. I'm not sure which order would produce better results.

The only downside is that the Costco hams are not, IMHO, as good a cut as what the MUCH more expensive Honeybaked hams provide. Also, I need to find a better recipe for the glaze. I think the one I tried had too many spices (cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger, pepper, plus lots of brown and white sugar).