This is the follow-up to a previous post.
To recap:
Easter falls on my wife's birthday so the daughter and future SIL came over for Easter/ Birthday celebration. I had decided to cure and smoke a fresh ham for Easter.
Here it is after I defrosted it - about 20+ lbs.
Trimmed the fat and skin off and ended with about 6 lbs of fat and skin. Well it also includes part of the bone since I had to saw off about 5 inches of the end shank to get it to fit in the brining container. The good news was that I got to use my new meat saw that I bought a while back.
Pic of the saw
All trimmed and ready to be injected with brine. The bad news is that I think I got carried away and trimmed a little too much.
Injected,weighted down with a plate and soaking in the brine.
In the fridge for a week's rest.
At this point I realized that I did not have any ham netting left so I ordered some and had to pay for expedited shipping.
Ham netting arrived in time. I had saved the fat that I had trimmed so I added some back when I put the ham in the net.
Put it in the Bradley at about midnight on Thursday night. Planning on it being ready sometime Saturday morning. The plan was for it to go in at 120* for 12 hours, then 140* for about 8 hrs with smoke and at 170* until it hits 142 -145* IT.
Completed the 12 hrs about noon Friday and started the smoke. Here it is hanging in the Bradley for about 5 hours of smoke. Used the Amazin Smoke tube filled with hickory pellets.
After the smoke it was in for about a total of 26 hours when it reached 142* IT so I pulled it. I know I should have waited until 145* but it was now almost 2:00 am and I was tired.
Cut the net off and wrapped it is plastic wrap and into the fridge until Easter morning. You may notice I took a slice for quality control testing. Okay, so it was more than one slice.
Come Sunday morning I unwrapped it, added some cloves, pineapple, and a homemade glaze. Double foiled it and into the oven until it got to 100* IT.
Pulled back the foil, glazed again and into a 450* oven for 20 minutes. While it was cooking, made a broccoli, rice casserole.
The ham came out great. Here is the plate with the ham, a croissant, mashed potatoes, and the casserole.
All in all, an excellent meal. Well worth the time. Plus have plenty of leftovers.
