I need a lesson in ham.


 
JohnTak

JohnTak

TVWBB Pro
I know canned ham and Spam are processed meat products. Canned ham in the squashed oval can is dense like real meat and cooked for holidays. Can it be smoked for pulled pork?
 
Yes.

Many canned hams that I have seen are actually a high-quality product. Your experience may vary.

The word "ham" implies processing (often including smoking), otherwise it would just be half of a pig's rear end (or half of a half).

Any boneless ham you see, canned, fresh, frozen or whatever, is removed from the bones and "shaped". That is necessary, not a bad thing.

Spam canned be pulled because it has been ground up with spices and shaped into the cans.

Read the label on any ham carefully - there is ham, ham with retained juices, ham with water added, ham/water product, etc.
 
I think canned ham can be smoked, yet I am not sure if the end result would resemble pulled pork.

The canned ham is (likely) processed and steamed and compressed into the can ready to eat.

Smoking and slicing might be a good use, yet I don't think it will shred like pulled pork.

Please experiment and let us know how it goes!
 
I agree that the effect will be different. His question asked if it was possible. Certainly not an economical way to do things. There are better ways to make pulled pork and better uses for canned ham.
 
By way of example, I bought my local grocery store out of really fancy pre-sliced boneless hams that they were blowing out for $1.99/lb this spring. Cheap protein. They are all maple flavored. I grind a lot of up into ham salad. It tastes a little different. It does work, you just adjust your expectations.
 
JohnTak said:
I saw a YouTube on canned ham burnt ends, and got curious.
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that'd be a ham that's cubed, doused with bbq sauce and placed in an oven or a smoker to cook the sauce (make em burnt).

that's not smoking a ham. a ham by definition is cured pork.

but you can add smoke to anything you like. but that wouldn't make a ham a pulled pork.
 
Jay D in Jersey said:
Never quite understood dudes smoking spiral sliced hams...what? Trying to achieve double smoked ham?
Click to expand...
Yes, just a way to heat for eating, adding a bit more smoke flavor, and adding a glaze of some sort as a finishing touch. I think many try it once and move on. I certainly did. Especially if you're trying to get that crackling glaze effect like a commercial HoneyBaked ham, you need a huge blowtorch to make that happen.

www.virtualweberbullet.com

Spiral Sliced Ham - The Virtual Weber Bullet

Smoking a spiral sliced ham is quick and easy on the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker. You're just adding more flavor to an already cooked and ready-to-eat ham.
www.virtualweberbullet.com www.virtualweberbullet.com
 
Jay D in Jersey said:
Never quite understood dudes smoking spiral sliced hams...what? Trying to achieve double smoked ham?
Click to expand...
When I first started smoking I did it for fun. More often than not, I still use a smoker (or at lest charcoal) because we normal only serve ham on a Holiday, which coincides with the Wife using the oven for pies. The toaster oven is not large enough for the ham.
 
My take on this is that while a fresh ham can be seasoned and smoked and turned into pulled pork, e.g. as part of whole hog barbecue, once you cure the ham the texture is different enough that the end result won't be true pulled pork.
 
Chris Allingham said:
Yes, just a way to heat for eating, adding a bit more smoke flavor, and adding a glaze of some sort as a finishing touch. I think many try it once and move on. I certainly did. Especially if you're trying to get that crackling glaze effect like a commercial HoneyBaked ham, you need a huge blowtorch to make that happen.

www.virtualweberbullet.com

Spiral Sliced Ham - The Virtual Weber Bullet

Smoking a spiral sliced ham is quick and easy on the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker. You're just adding more flavor to an already cooked and ready-to-eat ham.
www.virtualweberbullet.com www.virtualweberbullet.com
Click to expand...
I have done this and thought it was better than oven heated plus I cooked it until the bone was loose. Nice and tender and moist, not dry.
 
I grew up on SPAM and I'm pretty certain it was a part of every camping trip when we were kids, along with Potted Meat and Vienna Sausage, lol. As I write this I'm wondering if we ever caught any fish. The Son and college friends wanted to try SPAM a few years ago, so I fried a batch (it had been decades since I ate it at that point). My biggest dislike on that most recent experience was its saltiness.

Now I forget this thread title.
 
BFletcher said:
I grew up on SPAM and I'm pretty certain it was a part of every camping trip when we were kids, along with Potted Meat and Vienna Sausage, lol. As I write this I'm wondering if we ever caught any fish. The Son and college friends wanted to try SPAM a few years ago, so I fried a batch (it had been decades since I ate it at that point). My biggest dislike on that most recent experience was its saltiness.

Now I forget this thread title.
Click to expand...
Me too. Then during 29 years in the Navy I got to eat my fair share of Spam. I still like Spam, Potted Meat, and Vienna Sausage. You can overcook both and break them up but what you get will not resemble, nor taste like, pulled pork BBQ that you get from restaurants and backyard BBQs from coast to coast.
 
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