Dave Lewis
TVWBB Super Fan
I attempted the "Ham to die for" (see Oct 25 post) and it turned out good. Not great, but still very delicious.
First, I bought a 10 pound Cooks Ready to Cook "shank portion" "water added" ham. I removed the rind, soaked it in water overnight to reduce the salt and scored the fat in checkerboard pattern. I did not use any rub.
I fired up the WSM, standard method. At noon, the WSM had come down to 320 degrees lid temp, so I put the ham on and added 5 fist size chunks of applewood. The WSM dropped to 260. My target temps for the cook were 250-270 lid temps. Target internal ham temp 160. No problems with maintaining WSM temps through out the cook.
I guestimated about 30 minutes per pound (or 5 hours). At the 5 hour mark my internal temp was only 152. It was now 5pm and dark. My wife wanted an early dinner and I had already messed that up. So, I glazed it with the Mustard-Whiskey glaze, opened the vents all the way and let er rip to 290-305 lid temps. The ham internal temps came up about 2 degrees every 30 minutes at high temp.
Finally at 7pm, the internal temp was 158 degrees and I pulled it off to rest, expecting the temp to rise the final 2 degrees as it rested. It smelled wonderful and looked perfect. I glazed it again, reserving some glaze to add on the side. At 7:30pm, I carved it even though the temp was still 158.
It was a little underdone in the deep center. The Mustard-Whiskey glaze was huge hit. However, the ham was a little too smokey. It had a slight acrid smoke aftertaste. My 5 year old daughter commented that "it tastes like smoke." I was surprised because 5 chucks of applewood shouldn't have been too much for a 10 pound piece of meat. My guess was that because hams are already smoked to some degree (or injected with smoke flavor), that I should have cut down on the smokewood.
Next time I will plan on at least 45 minutes per pound (thats 8 hours for 10 pound ham) and will use 3-4 pieces of smoke wood.
First, I bought a 10 pound Cooks Ready to Cook "shank portion" "water added" ham. I removed the rind, soaked it in water overnight to reduce the salt and scored the fat in checkerboard pattern. I did not use any rub.
I fired up the WSM, standard method. At noon, the WSM had come down to 320 degrees lid temp, so I put the ham on and added 5 fist size chunks of applewood. The WSM dropped to 260. My target temps for the cook were 250-270 lid temps. Target internal ham temp 160. No problems with maintaining WSM temps through out the cook.
I guestimated about 30 minutes per pound (or 5 hours). At the 5 hour mark my internal temp was only 152. It was now 5pm and dark. My wife wanted an early dinner and I had already messed that up. So, I glazed it with the Mustard-Whiskey glaze, opened the vents all the way and let er rip to 290-305 lid temps. The ham internal temps came up about 2 degrees every 30 minutes at high temp.
Finally at 7pm, the internal temp was 158 degrees and I pulled it off to rest, expecting the temp to rise the final 2 degrees as it rested. It smelled wonderful and looked perfect. I glazed it again, reserving some glaze to add on the side. At 7:30pm, I carved it even though the temp was still 158.
It was a little underdone in the deep center. The Mustard-Whiskey glaze was huge hit. However, the ham was a little too smokey. It had a slight acrid smoke aftertaste. My 5 year old daughter commented that "it tastes like smoke." I was surprised because 5 chucks of applewood shouldn't have been too much for a 10 pound piece of meat. My guess was that because hams are already smoked to some degree (or injected with smoke flavor), that I should have cut down on the smokewood.
Next time I will plan on at least 45 minutes per pound (thats 8 hours for 10 pound ham) and will use 3-4 pieces of smoke wood.