Smoked Ham for the Christmas Holidays
December 12, 2006 | Issue 29
Hello friends and welcome to the Christmas edition of the Smoking Meat Newsletter! We talked about smoking turkey in our last issue and while that may be on the menu for Christmas as well, I am going to give you a few easy tips for smoking a ham even if it is pre-cooked.
With no further explanation, I am going to jump right into it!
Here is the lineup for this month.. enjoy!
- Smoking Ham
- ALL NEW! Smoking Meat Store
- Barbecue Competition Calendar
- Featured Products
- Joke of the Month
Smoking Ham
To start with a little lesson on ham, let it be known that ham is actually just a pork loin that has been processed with brines, sugars, etc. in such a way so as produce a distinct flavor that has become well known around the Christmas season and just about any time for that matter.
Most folks who do not cure their own hams (quite the long process by the way) will purchase a pre-cooked ham and throw it in the oven according to the directions on the package.
Well let me tell you how to take it to the next level, pop that baby in the smoker and keep it around 225 degrees and surrounded by smoke from your favorite wood for a few hours and you will have influenced the flavor of that ham in a remarkable way.
I do not think you need to take it all the way up to 160 or it may dry out too much on you but you can smoke it to around 140 or so and it will be extremely flavorful and delicious.
I have experimented with different ways of taking the flavor to new heights and some of those are described below:
- Rub with Jeff's Naked Rib Rub.. ENOUGH SAID!
- Make narrow, deep incisions and insert about 12 garlic cloves all over
- make a mop out of 1 part pineapple juice and 3 parts honey and mop the ham generously every 30 minutes as it smokes.
- Attach pineapple rings with toothpicks all over the ham and mop with pineapple juice every 30 minutes while it smokes.
Now if you are intent on doing it yourself and not using a pre-cooked one this is easily done but it will have a different flavor due to the lack of sodium nitrite and other curing agents used to make commercial hams.
I recommend a whole pork shoulder cut in half which is basically the pork butt (sometimes referred to as a Boston Butt) and the picnic. each piece will weigh in at around 6 to 8 pounds usually and will cook better and faster and with better results if it separated into the two pieces rather than being left whole.
I recommend coating it with a thin coat of yellow mustard and rubbing it down real good with Jeff's Naked Rib Rub. Get your smoker going and when it settles in at around 225 set the piece(s) of pork in the smoker.
Mop the pork every hour or so with pineapple juice or other liquid to keep it moist while it smokes.
When the pork reaches around 165 it will be done and sliceable. You can cook it to a higher temperature to further tenderize the meat if you like. I like to leave it in until it reaches about 175 at which point it still slices pretty good and is tender without falling apart.
By the Way.. If you have not taken advantage of my rib rub and barbecue sauce recipes then I think you should take care of that right now.. the sales of recipes and other products are what keeps this website going day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. Many of you have been so generous in giving money to the tip jar at the top left of this page and that is appreciated so much. I get emails almost daily from good folks telling me how the rub and sauce recipes are worth every penny and are absolutely the best they have ever eaten.. here is one of those emails.. I just wanted to say Thanks! I purchased your rub and sauce recipe last week. This past weekend I smoked a Pork Butt, Brisket, Chicken, and Ribs for some friends. I then took leftovers to the KC Chiefs game for a huge tailgate party. Your sauce made me look like a professional! It was definitely the hit of the day! Tailgating at a Chiefs game looks like a BBQ cookoff at the American Royal. So for these BBQ masters to rave over your sauce was something to be said! Thanks for your very informative Website. I have only started smoking meats a few months ago and have learned more from your site and different links than I have anywhere else. Keep up the great work! I would not offer them if they were not the best.. thank you for supporting the greatest smoking meat site online with your finances (every dollar counts) and in return I promise to keep answering emails, writing newsletters, producing helpful products and doing everything in my power to support your smoking habit! |
The New Smoking Meat Store
I have gathered together all of the smoking meat equipment and supplies I can find and with the help of Amazon.com have created our very own store. Every time you buy something from the store, you are supporting the greatest smoking meat website online.
Go to the Smoking Meat Store to check it out!
January 2006 BBQ Competitions
01/25 - 01/27
Lakeland, FL
State Championship
Lakeland Pig Festival
Contact: Kristin Phillips & Dara Broomfield, PO Box 8797, Lakeland, FL 33806
Phone: 863-682-2112 Fax: 863-682-7113
E-mail: lakelandpigfestival@jlgl.com
KCBS Reps: HOFMAN WALTER, WELCH CLIF, SMITH STEPHEN R, WELLS CAROLYN
Please go to www.kcbs.us for even more competitions scheduled in the upcoming months. If you know of other competitions, KCBS sanctioned or otherwise, please drop me an email at least 2 months in advance and I will try to add it to the list.
Share This Newsletter
Be sure to share this newsletter with all of your friends and family.. send it to them and tell them how to subscribe for themselves at http://www.smoking-meat.com/subscribe.html and they will thank you time and time again.
Jeff's Naked Rib Rub and BBQ Sauce Recipes
If you are truly serious about barbecue and cooking outdoors for family and friends then you need my rub and sauce recipes. It is the two tools that you absolutely need in your barbecue toolbox and the are the second most important investment next to your smoker in my opinion and lots of folks agree.
These recipes are a result of my passion for barbecue and smoked meat and I am only too happy to hear when they are a huge success at your house.
If you would like to experience these recipes for yourself (and you should) simply click the link below to read more testimonies or click here to go ahead and order.
Note: This is an immediate download which means just as soon as you order you should receive a download link within minutes.
Please email me right away if you do not receive an email within just a few minutes of ordering so I can jump into action and find out what is going on.
I have an outside company that handles this for me and I have to keep them on their toes.. my goal is 100% satisfaction and I won't be satisfied until you are. I PROMISE.
Joke of the Month
I love this one! It is so true and don't be afraid to chuckle when one of these rings a bell and causes a memory to surface.
Subject: True Tool Definitions
a. DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching
flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest
and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly
painted part you were drying.
b. WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say, "Ouch...."
c. ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age
d. PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads.
e. HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board
principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable
motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
f. VISE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is
available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the
palm of your hand.
g. OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various
flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the
grease inside a wheel hub you're trying to get the bearing race out of.
h. WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or ½ socket you've been searching for the last 15 minutes.
i. HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new disk brake pads, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
j. EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off a hydraulic jack handle.
k. TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.
l. PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbor to see if he has another
hydraulic floor jack.
m. SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-do off your boot.
n. E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit.
o. TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST: A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of bolts and fuel lines you may have forgotten to disconnect.
p. CRAFTSMAN ½ x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large motor mount prying tool that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle.
q. AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.
r. TROUBLE LIGHT: The home builder's own tanning booth. Sometimes called drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin,"
which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside,
it's main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is
somewhat misleading.
s. PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style
paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used, as
the name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads.
t. AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last tightened 70 years ago by someone at Ford, and rounds them off.
u. PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or
bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
v. HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses ½ inch too short.
w. HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.
x. MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of
cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes containing seats, chrome and plastic parts.
Submitted by ultramag at SmokingMeatForums.com
Thanks Larry and all of you who regularly submit jokes into the jokes section of SmokingMeatForums.com .. we all get a great laugh out of them and it makes our days a little better.
Thank You for Supporting Smoking-Meat.com!
Until next month... thank you for being a part of the best smoking meat/barbecue site on the world wide web! At this time we are supported solely by sponsored ads and the few items that we offer for sale.
Every time you purchase one of our excellent products it helps pay for the hosting, domain and other expenses required to provide this excellent service to you.
We have also added a "Tip Jar" link to the site and if you have been helped at all by this newsletter or the website then please consider a small $1, $5, $10 or $20(or more) gift of appreciation to help keep this site going. We are forever grateful to all of you who constantly let us know how much the site means to you.
Have a Wonderful Day and Keep Smoking (meat that is)!!!
Jeff Phillips
Pitmaster/Webmaster
www.Smoking-Meat.com
www.SmokingMeatForums.com
Feel free to drop us a line about anything at all by using our contact us page or the speedy form below.
My good buddy Bruce keeps me supplied with his wonderful Cajun Put-it-on-everything Bayou Shakedown and I invite you to give it a try.. I think you are gonna love it as much as my family and I do.
Check out his stuff at CrazzyCajun.com
Note: This newsletter can be freely reprinted or used without permission as long as it stays intact, as is and is not changed in any way from the format in which it was set by the author and/or editors of this publication.
Pork
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