Hey folks. I'm going to smoke a ham shank today and was wondering if it's best to leave the skin on or cut it off before smoking. I will be injecting it with a rum-based sauce and then plan to give it a glaze too.
I've always left the skin on to bake but was wondering if it's better to remove it to give the smoke better access to the ham. Thanks for any tips.
I remove it from cured or fresh ham for exactly the reason you stated. And also (at least in the case of fresh) to have some skin for making the occasional batch of chicharrones.
I would remove the skin before smoking.
Is this a fresh ham? For the shank end, either way you will get good results. I generally remove the skin and fat, and render the fat for lard.
If you leave the skin on; score it cross hatch style, using a utility knife (I have one that I only use for food - an Alton Brown tip). With a utility knife you can set the correct depth you want to cut the skin, and the scoring is so much easier than using a knife. You want to score it just deep enough until the blade comes in contact with the meat. The sections of skin will crisp up nicely during stage you are applying a glaze.