Fresh Ham


 
P

Patrick N

New member
Well, Porky is a 22# fresh ham, walking the morning I picked him up. I am lucky to have a family owned pork farm that sells fresh pork 6 months out of the year. The ham was injected and is now sitting wet curing for 7 days using a brine receipt I found on the dizzy pig. This wet cured ham will be ready following 10 days on Christmas Eve and I can hardly wait to taste it. I have been well educated on the WSM site for many a weekend smoke out, but info on the ham and a fresh one is kind of sparse.

I plan on taking it out and rinsing it, sitting in fresh cold water for 2 hours, repeating, and letting Porky come to room temperature for 2 hours before putting him on, smoking it at 325, without water and a full bed of grey coals. Now the question – Pan it and cover or not. The Dizzy Pig site just threw him on there, but I see a lot of comments on coving more processed varieties of ham. I want this Ham to be special, and a little critical cooking guidance is all I need. Anyone with a little experience here for a wet cured fresh ham?
 
I honestly don't have any experience with ham, and I'm assuming that Kevin will probably have some very valuable input; but it seems to me that if the ham has decent fat content it would be perfectly fine to leave it uncovered. I think especially since it's been brined and wet-cured that it would retain plenty enough moisture to be very succulent after the cook. That's just my opinion based on no experience or facts though.
 
Your opinion is well reasoned. There is no need to cover the ham in most cases. High cooktemps might warrant it, but for typical cooktemps (which I would call the 325 Patrick notes), then no, not necessary.

I do a fresh ham often for Christmas. I brine several days (a flavor brine, not a cure). Have a 19-pounder going into brine shortly...
 
Where do you guys (minus Patrick) find your fresh hams?

I was planning on trying one for the family this Christmas.

3 weeks ago or so, I visited every grocery store I could think of (except I never did make it to BJs, it's outta my way). I never could find the "particially cooked" or "ready to cook" ham like the one described on the front page last month.

I ended up buying a fully cooked one and followed the instructions in the cooking section for that type of ham. I wasn't really impressed with it. With all the curing it's already had, I didn't think the smoke penetrated very much and was pretty much disappointed with it.

I then visited a little family owned meat shop, real busy place, I eyed over all their hams and still couldn't find a "fresh" ham. They were so busy, I didn't ask about it. So I gave up. No smoked ham for Christmas.

Are these fresh buggers really that hard to find or am I just blind?

Thanks,
Todd
 
Fresh hams are neither partially cooked nor ready-to-cook. They are simply the raw hind leg. (I'm thinking you know this but just in case or for other readers.)

You are quite correct; they can be a PITA to locate. They are large (usually 18-23 lbs) and many stores do not stock them--even at the holidays--because so few people seem to know what to do with them anymore.

I just look around (if I don't have one in the freezer). They are almost never where the 'actual' hams (the smoked ones, the partially cooked, etc.) are; they are most often near or with the picnics and butts--since they are raw and unprocessed as well. Look in the raw pork section, not the section with cooked or partially cooked pork.
 
Thanks Kevin,

No, I don't think I did actually know the difference, thanks for explaining, and for giving me more credit that I deserved! :-)

I do remember seeing, and I can't remember the wording exactly, but something like "hind quarter", and it was unprocessed. It happened to be in one of the middle of the isle units at TOPS. Since I couldn't find anything on the label saying anything about ham, I didn't dare try it. Maybe that was it.

Plus I was really looking for one of the partially cooked or ready-to-cook hams at the time.

How come the label just can't say "fresh ham"? LOL.

Todd
 
Todd,

I'm not sure where you are located but try a Publix supermarket if there is one near you. The one near me has been carrying them lately. I'm actually on my way out the door to pick up a fresh Ham I ordered from my local meat market on Tuesday. It may be too late now but check with the local meat market or even the meat manager at the local grocery and they may be able to order one and have it by Monday.

Good Luck

KMc
 
Yes - as Kevin says. This is simply fresh pork. I have actually had the butcher remove the bone and create a roast for me which I have cooked and pulled just like I would have for pulled butt.

Also had fresh ham bunches of times growing up for the Christmas dinner. In some ways I like it better than smoked ham. It's a nice change. For pulled pork it will be firmer and not as greasy as the "real thing" AKA butt. Just need to be careful when cooking to pull. It doesn't have as much fat to keep it self basting and drying out.

Ray
 
Publix has come through for me too, Ken.

Todd-- Note that, should you be able to find a whole one, you can have the market slice it in two if you do not want or need to cook the whole leg. YOu'll then end up with a shank half and a butt half. Cook one and freeze the other for a future cook. The shank half has a nicer look--better when cooking for company--but either works well.

The one marked 'hind quarter' would be it. Some markets (more, recently) have dropped 'fresh ham' on the label because so few people know that 'ham' does not automatically mean smoked/cooked/processed.

Though I cook mine at high temps to ~150 internal, fresh hams were (and still are, though less so), in many spots in Ga and some in Tenn, used exclusively for Q'd pork, pulled or sliced. Not butts, as is traditional elsewhere.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
in many spots in Ga and some in Tenn, used exclusively for Q'd pork, pulled or sliced. Not butts, as is traditional elsewhere. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

My dad has always used a fresh ham for Q. Maybe it's just me but...for some reason I've always found the texture kind of unappealing. Don't know if I'm correct, but I always thought it might not be fatty enough or have the right amound of connective tissue for Q. Then again, I've never had it the way they make it in TN or GA.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Todd Randall:
How come the label just can't say "fresh ham"? LOL.Todd </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I was recently reading a Nigella Lawson cookbook (mostly for the pics of Ms. Lawson
icon_smile.gif
) recipe for "Hame in coke". It was interesting...she said that in the U.K. fresh ham is referred to as "gamon" (gammon?) and not until it's cured is it "ham". I guess it's some old-school term that didn't emigrate to the U.S.
 
Right on all counts. Well, the 'unappealing' texture thing is more of an opinion--but one I wholly agree with. I am not a fan of it for Q, but love it as a high heat smoke/roast. I have my lmoat 20-pounder soaking in a brine of mango, passionfruit, salt, thyme, bay, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, allspice, cinnamon and clove. It will be there till Christmas morning, then will be paste rubbed and smoke/roasted.

Both terms emigrated and both definitions as well. For a long time the 'fresh' of 'fresh ham' was automatically understood to mean uncooked--'ham' was understood as hind quarter. This all changed over the years, obviously. It hasn't helped that fewer and fewer people know or care what hind quarter is and how to cook one, let alone the 'fresh ham' designation.
 
I feel lucky here in Amish town. As many of you know sometimes it's hard for me to find certain things here. As far as fresh hams go this time of year and Easter they are quite easy to find in all the grocery stores. Plus being in the heart of Amish country we have many places to get fresh hams from the local butchers. But on another note, the famous Tri-Tips are another storry. Just the mention of them brings the look of your from outerspace.
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Merry Christmas Kevin, Good to see that you are still active on the boards.

Most of the "que" joints that use Hams instead of butts will offfer it to you sliced or chopped as opposed to pulled. Definitely different textures but I find the hams to have less fat to render and therefore faster to cook and more consistent than butts. I like 'em both. I usually do the Ham at Christmas when time is more of an issue and save the butts for the long slow hot all niters in the summer.
 
Merry Christmas Ken!

You're right of course: sliced or chopped, not pulled. Not my first choice for barbecue but not bad at all. I like it sliced. Been a while, though, since I was at a place that cooks hams.
 
Kevin,

Thanks for the tips on cooking my ham. Your brine sounds great, and I hope to try more hams in the future. I used pickling spice and brown sugar, and the brine smells absolutely wonderful - I cant wait for Christmas!

Happy Holidays

Patrick
 
Hey Kevin - as usual your preps are unique. Care to share some detail on the brine and paste rub you will be using? Are you using fresh passion fruit and mango or juice?
 
I used bottled mango juice (not nectar) plus several T of passionfruit juice I'd frozen when I harvested those. (Some stores sell frozen passionfruit pulp or juice, especially those with a large Hispanic clientele.)

The paste will be homemade hot chile sauce (similar to Tabasco) made into a paste by the addition of a whole head of peeled garlic cloves, a few shallots, fresh thyme, brown sugar, ground coriander and fresh ginger.

The ham is skin-on, my favorite. I scored the skin and fat (in the typical crosshatch) before brining. The paste will go on the ham, working it into the cuts, before cooking. Several of us are huge fans of the cooked skin. It comes out fairly crispy and full of flavor. We eat it while I carve.

If I can find a ripe pineapple (it SO ANNOYS ME that pineapples are so often cut while not yet ripe--they don't ripen after cutting!) I will make one of the sauce from that. I will likely make banana ketchup as well, and I'm thinking a roast garlic-roast shallot jam would be a good idea too.
 
BJ's had them out today. I was talking to the butcher lady and she said that she had put 2 of them out this morn, only one left when I was there. It was all but 20lb & priced @ $1.37lb and looked beautiful. Case price on butts down to $1.05lb.
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There were two whole fresh hams at Publix yesterday. I'm gonna wait 'em out till after Christmas and if they put them on sale like they do all of the leftover turkeys (They practically give them away) I'll freeze them. I did that for a turkey last year when I wanted to fry one for the first time. I got a whole 18lb bird for like $5.00. I figured if I screwed it up I wasn't out anything but the grease.
 
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