City Style WSM Ham


 

Shawn W

TVWBB Emerald Member
As posted by K Kruger in Recipe Requests Forum June 18, 2008:

For a 19-20-lb skin-on fresh ham.

8 T Cure #1

3 c (30 oz) table salt

1.5 c organic sugar (regular white is fine)*

1.5 c brown sugar (light)*

5 cloves garlic, crushed

2 T whole black peppercorns, slightly crushed

1 T whole white peppercorns, slightly crushed

2 T Aleppo

5 bay leaves

12 whole allspice

2 T whole coriander

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 sprig fresh sage

1 whole guajillo chilies, washed, dried and toasted


Put 5 qts cold water into a 10-qt pot and place in the fridge to chill.

Put the above ingredients in a pot along with 2.5 quarts cold water and bring just to a boil, stirring frequently so that the curing salt, salt and sugars completely dissolve. Reduce the temp, cover, and simmer gently 15-20 min. Remove from the heat. Allow to cool uncovered for a bit then add to the cold water in the fridge, stir well, and allow to chill thoroughly, to 37-39 degrees.

[Note: How much you make here will depend on the size container you have for your ham for curing. Take the ham--in its packaging or not--and place it in the container, cover completely with water, then remove the ham and measure the water. You will need 4 cups of the brine as an injection so account for that. If you need to make more then scale the ingredients up accordingly. The recipe above calls for 7.5 quarts of water total. You shouldn't need to scale up much but if you do you can likely just scale up by 50% from the get-go.]

Meanwhile, remove the skin and most of the surface fat from the fresh ham. Place the ham in a dishpan or roasting pan. Measure out 4 cups of brine, strain it, returning any spices/solids to the brine pot, then grab your injector. Start injecting by focusing first on the area near the bone at each end of the ham then inject to and around the bone covering all sides of the ham. Inject most of your cure at the bone and the rest as you remove the injector from the meat. Use all 4 cups.

Place your ham in whatever container you will use for curing and cover completely with the brine. Weight the ham to keep it totally submerged. Cure at 36.5-40 degrees for 10 days.

Remove the ham from the brine and rinse well, removing any stuck on spices. Soak the ham for 3 hours in cold water, in the fridge, changing the water twice. Trim off a little piece of meat and fry it in neutral oil. Taste for salt. Soak again if you want it less salty.

Smoke the ham using your smokewood of choice at ~240 to either 157 or so or, if glazing to finish, smoke to 140-145 first then glaze, applying thinly but evenly every 15 min, till the ham reaches 157.



* You can sub other sweeteners if you wish. In most cases it is better to reduce some of both the white and brown sugars, replacing with your sweetener of choice.



I Minion the start. For a ham of this type (more on the sweeter side) I tend to use fruit wood with a touch of hickory. Sometimes I make the ham more savory (less sugar in the mix) and smoke with sassafras or pecan, usually pecan--I like sassafras for savory bacon.

Kevin
 
This continues to work for me - did one for this Easter. Thanks Kevin. And thanks Shawn for re-posting!
 

 

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