Fresh Ham vs. Curred Ham??

[Habanero Smoker]

Yes! It may change the texture of the skin, but you can definitely FTC it.

Yesterday, I finally got mine into the brine. I brining a whole ham; 18.3 pounds. I made the brine in the morning, place it in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld. My sense of smell my be off, but I loved the smell of the brine  ;D, mainly because of the fennel seed. Since it is so large, in the evening I injected it, and had to cut the hock off so that it would fit in my 5 gallon pail. Now the waiting begins. If the weather holds out, I will be applying the smoke on Tuesday, and the into the oven.

[wkahler]

Just pulled mine out of the brine and going to stick it on the smoker in about hour or so!!  There might be something wrong with you if you enjoy that smell..........I can see it now, "do they make that in a candle" LOL!!!!! ;)  I am excited and nervous at the same time!!  I will have to see how it goes and hopefully it will turn out, and i will try and get some pictures to post.  The good thing is that it is 19 outside and has been in the single digits all weeks o i just put it in my pressure cooker pot and let it sit in the garage for the past three days!! 

Yes! It may change the texture of the skin, but you can definitely FTC it.

Yesterday, I finally got mine into the brine. I brining a whole ham; 18.3 pounds. I made the brine in the morning, place it in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld. My sense of smell my be off, but I loved the smell of the brine  ;D, mainly because of the fennel seed. Since it is so large, in the evening I injected it, and had to cut the hock off so that it would fit in my 5 gallon pail. Now the waiting begins. If the weather holds out, I will be applying the smoke on Tuesday, and the into the oven.

[Tenpoint5]

I was beginning to wonder if you guys were going to post any pics of your hams

[wkahler]

The beginning

[Habanero Smoker]

It is cold season so my smell may be off, but just a little. ;D I didn't have the mustard seeds, so I had to improvise in use prepared mustard.  I see you removed the skin, so you should be fine with the FTC.

10.5
I generally don't take pictures, I don't have the tolerance. But a lot of times when I am doing something for the first time I will take some pictures. I did take some this time - I believe 3 o 4 so far. I'll try to get them posted tomorrow.

[Tenpoint5]

I know you dont normally take pics Habs. I only put that in there when wkahler said he was going to post some.

[wkahler]

Well here you go right before the FTC!

[Tenpoint5]

Looks good, what was the final IT that you pulled it?

[wkahler]

I pulled it at 154, then i FTC it for about 30 mins.  Turned Out good, just a little dry for me, so i think next time i will inject some of the brine to let it get deeper into the ham.  No one else complained but i think sometimes i am my toughest critic, but i guess that's how i make it better next time!!  Next I'm going to try making bacon when i get back from a short trip after Christmas..............that will be a whole new post of questions and pictures LOL!!

[Habanero Smoker]

wkahler;

Sorry to hear yours turned out a little dry. Did you put the glaze on in the smoker, or just before FTC.

Like I said earlier I don't generally take pictures, I just don't have the tolerance to do that frequently. Though when doing something new, and I may post it on either site I will occasionally take pictures. Since I considered this one a new experience, I did start taking some pictures. And will continue to document my progress on this one.

Click on photos to enlarge.

For the fresh brined ham, I started with an 18.32 pound whole ham that I purchase from BJ's, for $1.45/lb.


I meant to take a picture of the ham with the cryovac removed, and before I removed the hock, but forgot. After removing it from the cryovac I soon realized that I had to remove the hock so that it could be fully submerged in the brine. I was surprised that the hock only weighed 1.5 pounds.


Since I was brining a whole ham, I strained some of the brine (27 ounces; 10% green weight of the meat) and spray pumped the ham. You should notice how plump it is compared to the previous photo.


Ham is now in the brine waiting to be weighed down. The smaller piece to the lower right is the hock. I may use the hock to make Osso Buco, but it is much smaller then I had expected it to be.


I now have to decide if I am going to smoke it or not. Or maybe try to separate the shank from the butt, and just smoke the shank end.

[wkahler]

Well i kept it in the Traeger the whole time at 250 after about 2 hours of smoke.  Total cook time was around 7 hours, give or take a little.  I put the glaze on about 1 hour before pulling it.  It was good just I tent to like my meat to be kind of juicy and not to dry.  Now my wife is the totally opposite she is ok with pork being kind of dry.  It was worth the experience and the smoke ring was nice and the flavor was good just didn't soak in as much as i thought it would for sitting for 3 days, so that is why i think the injection is the better way to go along with letting it sit for a while.  You might want to let yours sit for longer then 3 days since yours is the size of 2 small children!!  Mine was about 5-7 pounds, not positive though since i got them back from the butcher and they where not weight stamped.

[Tenpoint5]

Habs,
I am of the opinion that you have already removed the Shank from the ham. There is only three bones in the Ham. The aitch bone which you can see in the first picture. The Center bone which runs through the main part of the ham. Then the Shank bone which is actually two bones and you have already removed that. Or are you going to cut the main Ham section in half and make a butt end and a shank end out of it? O fcourse we could be calling the same piece of meat by different names do to regional differences. I am just curious

[Habanero Smoker]

I purchased a whole leg, and so far I only removed the hock section of the leg (a cut of meat). What you are referring to as the shank bone, I am referring to as the hock section, which contains part of the shank bone. When I mention I may cut the the leg into the butt and shank sections I am using the terms that are associated with the names of the cuts of meat, I'm not referring to the bone. I have fabricated a whole leg in the past and its doable just a pain with the tools I have, so at this time I'm just trying to decide if I want to or leave the leg intact or not.

wkahler;

I'm glad I decided to inject the brine.

[wkahler]

Yeah that would be the only thing i would change and possible let it soak a few days more.  I think about a week soak, say 5 days, would do some good and in injection is the main think i think will make a big difference!!

[Habanero Smoker]

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.