I'm on a mission to make the BEST Easter ham EVER!
Grocery store (or city) hams are already cured and precooked with a light smoke. You could safely cut open the bag and eat it cold. When you cook one of those city hams, you're basically just warming it up. I want to take fresh pork and do the curing and smoking myself.
But first, did you know that ham can be made out of any large hunk of pork meat? It doesn't have to come from the rear leg. Many of the deli hams you see are actually "hammed" pork loin which makes for beautiful slices.
But that's not what I'm going to do. I have a boneless pork butt that has been netted to give it a nice oval egg shape. The netting will also produce an interesting pattern on the finished product. I will cure (or "ham") this beautiful piece of pork myself. I followed this recipe for curing brine:
afarmishkindoflife.com
The pink curing salt (Prague Powder #1) in that recipe is what gives pork that "hammy" taste and texture that everybody loves.
My "ham" weighs 4.3 pounds. I made the curing brine and injected as much as I could in that bad boy, then it gets submerged in the brine and into the fridge for the next 3 days.
On Good Friday morning I will remove it from the brine and soak it in plain water for about four hours, changing the water once to remove some of the saltiness. Then I'll blot it dry with paper towels and it will air dry on a rack over a pan in the fridge overnight. This produces a film on the outside called the "pellicle" and will help the smoke adhere to the meat.
On Saturday, I'll hang it in the Pit Barrel Cooker using various hacks to keep the temperature really low. I'll be using hickory and cherry wood for that cook. When the ham reaches 145 degrees, I will remove it from the cooker, let it rest, and then into the fridge overnight again, wrapped in plastic wrap. Now it's basically what you get from the grocery store with your precooked city ham. But mine will be soooo much better.
FINALLY, on Easter Sunday I will double smoke that ham by applying some Dijon mustard as a binder, Meat Church's Honey Hog BBQ rub, and then back out to the pit, again with hickory and cherry wood for smoke. Bring it up to about 130 and then apply a sugary glaze, take it out at 140 degrees, let it rest, and then it's HAM TIME!
I will also make grilled pineapples to serve on the side using this recipe:
This is gonna be guud!
Grocery store (or city) hams are already cured and precooked with a light smoke. You could safely cut open the bag and eat it cold. When you cook one of those city hams, you're basically just warming it up. I want to take fresh pork and do the curing and smoking myself.
But first, did you know that ham can be made out of any large hunk of pork meat? It doesn't have to come from the rear leg. Many of the deli hams you see are actually "hammed" pork loin which makes for beautiful slices.
But that's not what I'm going to do. I have a boneless pork butt that has been netted to give it a nice oval egg shape. The netting will also produce an interesting pattern on the finished product. I will cure (or "ham") this beautiful piece of pork myself. I followed this recipe for curing brine:
Home cured ham: how to brine a ham
Interested in learning how to turn your pork into ham? Let me share with you how we brine a ham (or wet-cure a ham) here at our farm.
afarmishkindoflife.com
The pink curing salt (Prague Powder #1) in that recipe is what gives pork that "hammy" taste and texture that everybody loves.
My "ham" weighs 4.3 pounds. I made the curing brine and injected as much as I could in that bad boy, then it gets submerged in the brine and into the fridge for the next 3 days.
On Good Friday morning I will remove it from the brine and soak it in plain water for about four hours, changing the water once to remove some of the saltiness. Then I'll blot it dry with paper towels and it will air dry on a rack over a pan in the fridge overnight. This produces a film on the outside called the "pellicle" and will help the smoke adhere to the meat.
On Saturday, I'll hang it in the Pit Barrel Cooker using various hacks to keep the temperature really low. I'll be using hickory and cherry wood for that cook. When the ham reaches 145 degrees, I will remove it from the cooker, let it rest, and then into the fridge overnight again, wrapped in plastic wrap. Now it's basically what you get from the grocery store with your precooked city ham. But mine will be soooo much better.
FINALLY, on Easter Sunday I will double smoke that ham by applying some Dijon mustard as a binder, Meat Church's Honey Hog BBQ rub, and then back out to the pit, again with hickory and cherry wood for smoke. Bring it up to about 130 and then apply a sugary glaze, take it out at 140 degrees, let it rest, and then it's HAM TIME!
I will also make grilled pineapples to serve on the side using this recipe:
Cinnamon Grilled Pineapple - Barbecuebible.com
Rings of pineapple grilled with cinnamon to go along with Ham in a Hurry. Recipe from Episode 207 of Steven Raichlen's Project Smoke.
barbecuebible.com
This is gonna be guud!
Last edited:
