12.5 lb Ham - Shank Half

[TentHunter]

The butcher had a decent price on fresh hams- $2.19/lb. (especially considering pork prices lately), so I picked up a 12 1/2 lb shank half.

I mixed up some Brown Sugar Ham Brine and injected the ham to 30% (by weight). It then went into a brining bag with the rest of the brine to cure for nine days. I used waded up newspapers shoved in on the side to help keep the brine up and covering the ham.

Friday evening I drained it and let it sit on a rack under the range hood to draw air across it for a few hours to form the pellicle, then back into the fridge overnight.

I finally got in on Saturday afternoon. It got a couple hours of cold smoke with the A-Maze-N smoking tube (100% Hickory pellets), then the MAK was turned on to smoke mode.

It stayed in smoke mode all evening and night until it reached around 145° early the next morning. I brushed on some honey for glaze and bumped the temp up to 275°.

The white spots you see in the photo are snowflakes.

When it reached 155° I turned the MAK off and left the ham in it to cool down while we left for church. When we got home I couldn't wait to slice into the ham to see how it'd turned out. By then it was cooled down, but still warm and perfect for slicing.

The reveal...

Some Rye bread and little mustard... and I foresee some ham sammies in my near future. YUM!!!

Thanks for looking!

Cliff

P.S. Here's the recipe details in the Ham Brining 101 thread.

 

[JessieBPS]

This looks amazing. I am going to add this to my "smoking goals" for 2015. Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[sptucker]

Cliff, that looks amazing.

Now that I've got bacon under my belt, maybe a ham is next?!

Please have a ham sammie for me. With a hoppy beer, please...

 

[TentHunter]

I am going to add this to my "smoking goals" for 2015. Thanks for sharing!!!

Jessie, you can do it! Check out the "Ham Brining 101" tutorial (in the searching for the cure section) for details.



Paul, you've done wet-cured bacon, and a ham is not much different at all! I recommend starting out with a Picnic Ham (picnic shoulder). It's a very manageable size and easy to find.

Again, check out the Ham Brining 101 thread. It gives all the details as to how much curing salt, etc. to use in your brine based on how much you plan to inject. I am updating section 3 to make some things easier to understand.