Whole Fresh Ham

[Habanero Smoker]

Wow!

Those look great. I wish mine came out that good. ;D It's looking like I won't get my post out until tomorrow.

This year I did make slight modifications in my recipe, and I believe it made an improvement in the flavor. I'll include those modifications in my post.

[mybad]

Great looking ham. You guys have got me thinking of doing this again!

[Habanero Smoker]

I hope this posting is not too long. I'll post the glazing and reheating method I used in another post.

I used my P10 for this smoke/cook. The ham could have been easily placed directly on the rack, it also would have fit on the other Bradley models rack. I decided to hang it, because that was the only way the netting kept the deboned ham uniformly shaped. If this was a bone in ham, I would have just placed it on the rack.

Below is a link that shows how to easily stuff the ham into the netting.

Stuffing Ham Into Netting
Sroll to the bottom of the page.

Around 7AM, I jerry rigged a system to hang the ham.


This is the equipment I used; 36″ Ham Bag Stockinette, Stainless Steel Stockinette Hook (both I had purchased from SausageMaker), rebar, scrap lumber. Missing from picture are two silicone trivets. The rebar was scrubbed clean and wrapped in aluminum foil. At the last minute I had to go to my scrap wood
pile and dig out a 2x4. It was pretreated lumber and dirty, so I cleaned it the best I could and wrapped them in foil. The other scraps of wood are 1x4's.


After removing the vent damper, I placed the netted ham on a Bradley smoker rack, and place it in a position so that I could work the hook through the vent, and to be able to insert the rebar. Once the hook was secured on the rebar and netting, I removed the tray to allow the ham to hang. At this point the rebar was just resting on the trivets.


The ham was hanging to close to the heating elements, so it needed to be raised.




Using the scrap wood to raise the ham. This raised the ham by 3.75 inches.

The 40 hours of air drying in the refrigerator did not fully develop the pellicle. I needed to air dry the ham for a period. I preheated the Bradley to 110°F, and placed the ham in the smoker, at 8:15AM. The ambient temperature was 34°F, with a steady breeze of around 10 - 15 miles per hour. The internal temperature of the ham was 38°F, and the weight was 12 lbs. 5 oz.

After 2 hours of air drying (10:15AM), I began to apply 4 hours of smoke, at 130°F. Although I feel that the P10 produces a stronger smoke flavor, I decided to still go with four hours of smoke, since the vent is wide open. This decision turned out to be the right one. Ambient temperature is 39°F, with a steady breeze of 10 - 15 miles per hour. Even with a full open vent and breezy conditions, the P10 is doing a great job maintaining the set temperature, and the recovery is fairly fast.

At 2:19PM, after 4 hours of smoke, I rotated the ham 180 degrees, and increase the temperature to 200°F. After rotating the ham, I inserted a meat thermometer. The internal temperature of the meat was only 84°F. I was expecting it to be closer to 100°F. I turned off the smoke generator, and the only heat now being applied was from the two 400w elements. Ambient temperature is 42°F, with a steady breeze of 10 - 15 miles per hour.


Looking at the ham after 2 hours of air drying, and 4 hours of smoke.

At 5:30PM I rotated ham. The internal temperature was 97°F. Ambient temperature was 32°F, no wind.

At 9:10PM the ham reached 140°F and it was taken out of the smoker – the carryover should bring it up to 145°F plus. My next ham I will probably take it to 135°F, and let the carry over take it to 140°F plus. Ambient temperature was 25°F, no wind. After resting for 30 minutes the ham weighed in at 10 lbs. 6.5 oz. Once cooled down, it was wrapped first in plastic wrap, then with foil. Now awaiting Easter Dinner.


Finished Ham view of the fat cap. Before removing the netting, I let the ham cool a bit. The netting did stick to parts of the fat cap. So next time, if I leave a fat cap, I will remove the netting immediately.


Finished Ham view of the bottom half.



Finished Ham front view.

The netting did not keep the ham together as tightly as I had wanted. During the smoke/cook, it did separate a little at the surface. Maybe if I left the sirloin tip in, it would not have separated at that area. Also you can notice some areas where it has cooked more than other parts. This is the area that was closest to the bisquette burner during the smoking period. Next time I will rotate the ham half way through the smoke time. This did not have any major effects of the final product. Next time I'll pay better attention to tying a boneless ham, before netting.

Total Time:13 Hrs. 5 Min
Air Drying: 2 Hrs. (at 110°F)
Smoke Time: 4 Hrs. (at 130°F; pecan bisquettes)
Additional Cook Time: 7 hrs. 5 min cook time after smoking. (200°F)

[manxman]

An epic post Habs and the finished product is mouth watering, a real labour of love!  :)

[Habanero Smoker]

An epic post Habs and the finished product is mouth watering, a real labour of love!  :)

The most difficult part was trying to remember to take photos.  ;D

[manxman]

The most difficult part was trying to remember to take photos

It was well worth the wait!  ;D

[mybad]

That is fantastic, such great color, I can smell that just looking at it!

MB

[cathouse willy]

That's a beauty!! Thanks for posting the recipe, I've used the early version of it for years.