I stopped into a friends house tonight to drop off some Summer Sausage and Cheese and he had a bit of a surprise for me that I am not sure how to approach. :o
He presented me with about 1/3 of a full belly of bacon from a local Slaughterhouse/Butcher and Smoke Shop. They do make killer Bacon so I was pretty happy until he then drug a 1/2 ham out from the fridge and set it on the table.
He told me they were out of smoked hams and the cured hams were all that they had left. Seems to me when he talked about getting a Smoked Ham from them in September someone told him to ORDER NOW because they always run out.
Well anyhow he wants me to smoke it for him and I am a bit worried about it since it is the Christmas ham he will be making this year.
My big problem is that it is 1/2 a ham. It is a boned large ham cut in half for sale. If it was a whole ham I would treat it as if I just pulled it out of the brine and do maybe 4 or 5 days of cold smoking for 4 hrs at a time then hanging in fridge but since it was cut in half I am worried about drying it right out. ???
Does anyone here have any suggestions or have done this and would be able to give me some advise?
is the ham already cured and cooked or in raw state?
i am in the middle of doing a dry cure ham that takes 7 or 8 days to cure by its self, and am planning to rinse off the cure on friday afternoon and soak it in apple juice for a few hours to get some juice back into the ham befor going into the smoker early saturday.
The ham is cured and ready to throw in the oven ... just like the ones in the grocery store.
The shame of it all is that where it comes from is local meat and always VERY GOOD. I would cook it as is but he insists that he wants me to smoke it.
two things you can do
1) cold smoke it with apple or maple and let him cook it if he wants to add a glaze to it
2) hot smoke and cook it and add a glaze to it if you wish
My intent was to cold smoke ... my concern was the open meat where it was sliced in half drying the meat. Is there a way to protect?
Bear, there are a couple of approaches that I think might work. To avoid drying out the cut surface of the ham, I'd protect it from the warm air in the smoker. To protect the cut surface, I'd make a low edged tray from a couple of layers of heavy duty foil. Then I'd pour about 1/4 cup of apple juice or apple cider into the tray. Set the ham into the tray, cut side into the juice, and wrap the foil up the ham about an inch. Then roll the smoke.
A second approach would be to FTC (foil/towel/cooler) the ham for an hour or so after smoking. Basically the same approach as above. The ham should absorb the apple juice through the cut surface and replace at least some of the moisture lost during the smoking process.
Great Stuff Tskeeter ... I did just that ... foil bottom filled with apple juice then smoked the heck out of it. Seems good to me :D