Ham and Turkey


 
S

S. Dover

TVWBB Fan
I was already planning on doing a turkey for work next week. The boss called today and said he wanted me to do a ham along with the turkey and he would pay for both. Here is what I need to know.

1. Can I just buy a ham that has already been smoked and put it on the WSM above the turkey and get it up to temp?
2. I was planning on using cherry chunks for the turkey. How would this effect the ham since it will most likely be pre-smoked with hickory?
3. Would I do better to just put the ham in the oven and forget re-smoking it?

Any help would be appreciated.
 
If you've already got the WSM up and running for the turkey, you might as well heat the ham in there too. The ham will handle the additional smoke just fine. Cherry smokewood and hickory compliment each other so that shouldn't be a problem. Just remember to keep the ham on top and the bird on bottom to avoid contaminating the meat.
 
Here's a summary of how to cook a ham on the WSM:

Ham Selection & Preparation: Cooking Ham On The WSM

Easiest thing is to do a "ready to eat" ham, which means you're basically just reheating the ham at 225-250*F for about two hours to 120-140*F internal temp.

If you're cooking a turkey at 325-350*F, this becomes a problem. That's too high a temp to reheat a ready to eat ham, and you'll risk drying it out.

I suppose you could cook the turkey first at high temp, then foil it good and store it in a dry cooler for two hours while doing the ham at a lower temp.

If it were me...I'd smoke the turkey and reheat the ham in the oven.

Good luck,
Chris
 
Thanks Chris and Doug- makes a lot of sense.

I was reading in the ham selection and prep section about letting the ham sit 1-2 hours prior to placing in the WSM. Would this hold true for an oven cook as well?
 
You certainly could, but the next time I update that article I will remove the statement about letting it sit at room temp. I don't think it does any harm, but I'm not sure it does much good, either. I used to do it, but not anymore.

Regards,
Chris
 
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