Smoked Ham

[t-motheviking]

I am a lover of hog.  I have been long before I got into smoking or even owned a grill!  I have finally gotten around to cooking one of my favorite pieces of hog and I can't wait to try it tonight!  Bought a 9.4 lb ham form the grocery store today.  This is one of the brands they carry and seeing as I hadn't tried this one yet I figured I would try it.  I have never cooked a shank portion ham like this so I'm excited to try it!  Scored the whole thing then used yellow mustard as a binder and seasoned with Dave's Rib Rub.  In the smoker with about 3 ounces of Hickory/Cherry, a loaf pan of Nordeast beer, and will cook at 230 until an IT of 140.  So excited!  The plan is to eat some tonight and then once it cools down I'll vacuum pack the rest and freeze it until this weekend where it will be used for sandwiches in the duck blind!

It looks like it has skin on it towards the thinner end.  Do y'all leave skin on when you do a ham like this?  I did this time and figure that the worst case scenario is I have to trim it off after it's done.

 

[t-motheviking]

and the finished product!  Very Very good!  Fried some up with eggs for breakfast today and uffda that was good.

 

[SuperDave]

And save the bone with a little meat on it for a pot of beans.  I would indeed recommend that you remove the thick skin next time and fry it up for pork rinds.  Smoke can't penetrate that heavy skin very well. 

 

[SconnieQ]

The skin is mostly covering the part of the shank where there is not so much meat. So I think it is probably fine to leave it on for smoking. The skin, bones, and weird pieces of meat can be used to make a delicious stock for beans, split pea soup, bean/ham soup, potato/ham soup, corn chowder, or anything where you might use a bacon base for flavor. Boil ham trimmings, skin, bones, and scraps for an hour or two, then pull any nice meat bits off that you can, and reserve for soup. Return bones and odd scraps to the pot of water, and boil for several hours to extract every bit of flavor out of those bones. Strain the broth and freeze until needed. I refrigerate the stock overnight, then scrape off the fat layer on the top, and use the fat for frying potatoes, or anything where you might use bacon fat for frying, including frying your aromatics for soup.

 

[t-motheviking]

Yeah it ended up getting hard and wasn't overly flavorful but the dog didn't mind.  Not much meat under it but that's ok!  I ended up giving the bone to a buddy's wife who apparently makes soup from it like you guys are saying.  I don't really make soup so I wasn't too worried about it but I may have to give that a try the next go round because that doesn't sound hard to do!

Ham was so good I was able to trade some for a DVD on goose calling from a buddy of mine (he has mastered goose calling and I have not).  Fried the rest up with eggs for supper last night and man was it phenomenal.  Some more will be eaten today and the rest will be eaten Saturday during duck hunting!

 

[JSRFrench]

I have a #3 for 4 or 5 years & have smoked possibly 40 or so hams as I also love them. My last was 5 days ago for football Sunday sandwiches.
Saw where you asked a couple questions earlier. Will relay my experiences.
1- I always remove any skin & most of any thick spots of fat to 1/4" depth.
2- Have had the most success at 240* for 5 hours using a combination of Apple & Hickory wood chips.
3- Similar to a Boston Butt, I cover in yellow mustard & add my own rub
4- Have tried a Brine but did not notice any discernible difference unlike a fresh ham or a Boston Butt / Pork Shoulder.
5- After 4 hours, remove the ham, place in a stainless steel pan with 12oz of warm beer cut side down, return to the smoker. I have substituted apple cider for beer & it is good also.

 

[Judge]

I have a question
The posts I have read about precooked hams don't speak in terms of hours per pound only hours and an internal temp of 140 or 145. If I have 6 to 8 pound ham what temp, how much and what type wood and how long to smoke and how long to foil. Same question for a 3 to 4 pound ham.  Saw a youtube video where 8 or 9 lb ham took 9 hours to reach 145. That sounds way longer than what I was reading here. As usual thank you for your time.

pic is from my trail cam at my house in the fall 2917

 

[SuperDave]

In general terms, I’ve found precooked hams to take between 15 - 20 minutes per pound to reach 140 at 250 box temp.

 

[DivotMaker]

Judge, you have to get over that whole "how long to foil" thing.  The beauty of the SI (with the exception of something like a 4 lb brisket) is that you can do without all the foiling, spritzing, mopping, etc.. that is necessary with traditional smokers.  All of those techniques are designed to counter the drying-effect of the heat source, a problem we don't have.  No need to foil a ham.

 

[Judge]

Ok no foil but above says 15 to 20 minutes per pound for a fully cooked ham. 2 hours for a 6 hound ham ? The numbers on this issue seem all over the place but this seems real short.

 

[SuperDave]

Most precooked hams have a tag on them that tell you specifically what temp and time.

 

[DivotMaker]

Ok no foil but above says 15 to 20 minutes per pound for a fully cooked ham. 2 hours for a 6 hound ham ? The numbers on this issue seem all over the place but this seems real short.

Remember, you're just heating a fully cooked ham, and adding extra smoke.  They really don't take very long to get to 140.  It's not that critical, since they are already cooked.  Just keep an eye on it, and you'll see once you do one.