Advice on cold-smoking whole hams please.

[roddyb]

I seem to find conflicting advice everywhere! i am using the cold smoking attachment and with 2 whole hams in the smoker at a time, please can somebody suggest an ideal time for medium smokiness. i plan to have them vacuum packed and frozen afterwards. they were brine cured before smoking. also should the smoking be continuous? The excellent book on home smoking and curing by Keith Erlansond suggests 7 days but that seems both very long and very expensive!  Thank you in advance...

[Tenpoint5]

Welcome Aboard roddyb!

I have never cold smoke a fresh ham right out of the brine, but you can still hot smoke and then freeze to be used later. For that I would preheat to 120* then follow the following schedule.

12 hours at 120* vent wide open
then 8 hours at 140* with smoke vent 1/2 open
bump to 160* until internal Temp of 142*
or for a fully cooked ham go to 152-155*

You would stop at the 142, then cool and freeze for later use.

[FLBentRider]

W E L C O M E  to the Forum roddyb!


Tenpoint5,

How much smoke did you apply ?

[roddyb]

Thankyou Tenpoint 5. I really appreciate your advice although specifically looking to cold smoke to produce a gammon/ham which will be soaked before baking/roasting. rather English Xmas tradition....

[manxman]

The excellent book on home smoking and curing by Keith Erlansond suggests 7 days but that seems both very long and very expensive!

Hi roddyb and welcome to the forum.

Keith Erlandson's book is indeed excellent, however the times he gives for smoking does not relate to using a Bradley Smoker. His times relate to hanging the ham in you chimney or whatever where the smoke is not as intense as in the BS.

If I was in your shoes I would either soak, cold smoke, vacuum seal and freeze post brining or soak, vacuum seal and freeze then defrost and cold smoke immediately before cooking although I would suggest the former. Either way make sure they are as dry as possible before smoking.

I reckon continuous cold smoking for 4 to 6 hours in a BS should suffice depending on how big they are , you don't want to smoke then soak as this will dilute the smokey flavour.

If the first couple you do are too smoky / not smoky enough you can alter the time accordingly.

When you cold smoke make sure you keep the temp << 25C / 80F.

Make sure the hams are then throroughly cooked to the recommended internal temperature before eating.

[roddyb]

thank you very much manxman, thats really helpful. having reared the pigs ourselves, i want make sure i get it right! i take your point about soaking before smoking, although the typical approach when buying smoked gammon would be to soak before roasting, perhaps thats simply because you dont get a chance to take it back to the smokery for smoking!. i am doing 4 large hams. 

[manxman]

thank you very much manxman, thats really helpful. having reared the pigs ourselves, i want make sure i get it right! i take your point about soaking before smoking, although the typical approach when buying smoked gammon would be to soak before roasting, perhaps thats simply because you dont get a chance to take it back to the smokery for smoking!. i am doing 4 large hams. 

Hi roddyb,

Very jealous of the fact that you have reared your own pigs ......... what breed? It is something I would like to do at some stage.

You are of course correct about the typical approach of smoking before soaking and this recipe from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall at River Cottage demonstrates it:

http://www.rivercottage.net/SeasonalRecipes~November/728/Brine.aspx

Maybe it is because the smoking in the BS is compacted into a relative short time but in my (limited) experience of smoking then soaking I found it seemed to affect the smoke flavour significantly more than the other way around hence tend to opt for soaking then smoking.

I also tend to cold smoke then finish off with a short hot smoke and slow cook all in the BS but a couple of large hams would take a looooooooong time that way.  ::)

The other option would be to try smoking for say 8 - 10 hours if doing it the other way around?

Tell you something, if I was doing 4 home reared hams myself I think I would be off down to Tesco's or Sainsbury's first to buy a cheap ham to experiment with first!  :D ;)

Hope they come out well, let us know how you get on.

[Tenpoint5]

W E L C O M E  to the Forum roddyb!


Tenpoint5,

How much smoke did you apply ?

Continuous smoke for 8 hours while at 140* Of course it was Hickory

[roddyb]

Manxman, again many thanks. i will freeze them as i am not sure about hanging brined (as opposed to dry cure) cure. this is the second time we have done pigs and they are incredibly easy and fun, my children love the it and learn respect for the provenance of the meat they eat.. this time we did saddleback / middle white cross and very happy with the outcome. next year i am going to do berkshires. rearing them from 8 week old weaners to porkers at the 5-6 month point of slaughter couldnt be easier. saying goodbye to them is tough but thats life...

[manxman]

That sounds so much fun roddyb and as you say, great for children including teaching them to respect the meat we eat. Sounds like your pigs have a great, albeit short, life.  ::)

Some of the old English varieties of pig look like they make great eating!  :)

I think if you are freezing the meat it doesn't really matter if you soak immediately post brining and prior to cold smoking then freezing.

From Erlandson's book and in the River Cottage example it would be important to keep the salt content high until just before cooking if you are just hanging them in a cool place to keep the bugs at bay. I suspect that is why the traditional way is to soak just before cooking as this is from the pre freezer era.

If you get a chance to post a pic of the end result.......... make me even more jealous!  ;) :D

I think if I was brining a large ham for hanging rather than freezing I would want to inject the brine into the centre of the ham as well as submerging the meat in it.

[Habanero Smoker]

This is an interesting thread. I may try something like this some day.

[manxman]

This is an interesting thread. I may try something like this some day.

Cold smoking has certainly been the traditional way of smoking on this side of the pond whilst I get the impression hot smoking has been the traditional way on the other side...... would that be fair comment Habs?

[roddyb]

so i have given the first 2 hams 24 hours of continous cold (sub 20 deg C) oak smoke. they look and smell fantastic. the second 2 will get less, probably 8 hours and 12 hours respectively. i will report back in due course! next step is cutting them to smaller hams, vacuum packing and then freezing.

[Habanero Smoker]

This is an interesting thread. I may try something like this some day.

Cold smoking has certainly been the traditional way of smoking on this side of the pond whilst I get the impression hot smoking has been the traditional way on the other side...... would that be fair comment Habs?

It varies. There are numerous individuals and commercial establishments that have smokehouses and prefer to cold smoke. I find that most home smokers prefer to hot smoke. These days many of the commercial establishments hot smoke, because it is less time consuming and more profitable.

[trapperbruce]

so i have given the first 2 hams 24 hours of continous cold (sub 20 deg C) oak smoke. they look and smell fantastic. the second 2 will get less, probably 8 hours and 12 hours respectively. i will report back in due course! next step is cutting them to smaller hams, vacuum packing and then freezing.

ive still been waiting for due course to kick in and hear of the results   

    thanks