Fresh Ham vs. Curred Ham??

[wkahler]

You cooking yet!>!>!

I'm going to go ahead and remove mine from the brine this evening at the end of the 3 day brining time, and let it "hang out" as Ann would say; in the refrigerator from about 5PM until sometime tomorrow. Then smoke/roast it tomorrow.

[SouthernSmoked]

Dang Hab's, I've been waiting for you to post this info didn't realize that you had posted it here.

So you allow this to set in the brine for 3 days and then dried for 24 hours, is this correct?

Also you injected the ham with the brine before resting in the brine?

Sounds awesome and can't wait to see a few updated pictures.



wkahler, the ham looks awesome!

[Habanero Smoker]

I injected, brined for 3 days, and air dried for about 17 hours. I wanted to get it in the smoker this morning. I got it in the smoker a little after 9 AM, and applied 4 hours of hickory at 200°F. When I took it out of the smoker the IT was 83°F.

It is in the oven now and should be finish in about 1 - 1.5 hours. I decided to roast the whole ham, which made it quicker for me to get it into the smoker, but once in the oven the recipe calls for turning it over several times, which is not easy to do with a huge ham. I made her glaze, and was not too impressed with it, I'll see how it taste on the finished the ham.

I took a few more pictures, and should have them posted about this time tomorrow.

[wkahler]

Thanks for the compliment SouthernSmoked!!

Surprised your oven was big enough Hab LOL!!!

[Habanero Smoker]

I haven't forgotten about this; I just too involved in a few other projects. I should have the pictures posted either Sunday or Monday.

I can say that I had a similar result that wkahler had. As aromatic as the brine was, very little of that flavor transferred into the meat. The glaze turned out surprisingly good on the ham. The skin did not crisp up but got very hard, so if I repeat this recipe I would remove the skin first. The IT got much higher then I had planned. The carry over was 13°F under a loose foil tent, so when I pulled it at 147°F it ended up at 160°. I will post more details with the photos.

[Habanero Smoker]

I need to get this posted now, or will never get to it once I start clearing snow. I rushed this so if there is any missing information, or if something doesn't make sense I'll correct it later.

Click on pictures to enlarge.After about 15 hours of air drying in the refrigerator a nice pellicle has formed on the skin and meat.


Crosshatching gave me some difficulty. I couldn't locate my favorite tool for that, a utility knife. So I ended up going deeper in some parts then I had wanted to. This skin was unusually tough.


Getting a later start then I wanted, so I decided to keep the ham in one piece. I got it in the smoker at 9:15 AM. I decided to go with hickory. I had to use a few strands of twine to tie it up so that it would fit on the racks (I doubled the racks). It's tied loosely; I didn't want to tie it too tight.


Here it is out of the smoker; the IT was 83°F. You will notice some black rain. The conditions were not ideal for smoking that day. It was a windy day and cold. The condensation that collected on the outside of the smoker around the vent was blown toward the probe wire. It the water followed the wire then dripped on the ham. The second shot is the paste applied.
   

Ham is out of the oven and completely cooked. With this recipe you don't want to use a large ham; it is too difficult to turn. The skin which I was hoping would be crackling was hard and inedible. So next time if I do something similar I will remove the skin. If the skin is removed I don't see any reason to turn the ham during cooking.


These are the potatoes that were used as a roasting rack. These don't look too appetizing, but the flavor was great.


Finished plate (ignore the green crap on the side) - the ham was moist, but I would have liked it to have a little more moisture. Also the flavor of the ham was alright, buy the flavors did not transfer that well into the meat. I'm going to try this again, but will increase the salt, and use a smaller cut. The amount of brine, and the amount of glaze is way too much for what the recipe calls for. I would scale the bring to 50%, and scale the glaze to 1/4.

[wkahler]

Glade to see your pictures!!  Sorry it took me so long to post, out of town and with holidays, and snow removal going on around here it has been busy!!

[Habanero Smoker]

This is a promising recipe, so I'm going to tweak it and give it another try.