Smoking a ham
Yesterday P helped daughter K move into an apartment in the city. K is doing a semester in the city for her Urban Studies minor. Because I would be home alone I decided to ask P's two nephews over to help me smoke a ham.
Last week P purchased a 6 1/2-pound ham. Sunday evening, I prepared and applied a dry rub on the ham. I followed the first smoked ham recipe on the Texas Barbecue website. Then Monday morning the nephews showed up at 10 A.M. We got the smoker uncovered, the hickory wood and charcoal started. By 10:30 the ham was on the smoker and the long wait started.
We found a bottle of red wine I had forgotten I had and added it to the water pan. Once the ham was on the smoker we made the sauce for basting the ham and the glaze for glazing the ham during the last hour of smoking. The recipe called for basting the ham once an hour, but we decided to baste it every half-hour.
We sat at the kitchen table and talked and talked. Every half-hour or so they would go check the temperature of the smoker. We had a terrible time keeping the temperature of the smoker low enough. However, as the day progressed we decided that the sun heating the top of the smoker caused the high reading. After lunch once the sun had moved and the smoker was in the shade the temp was right were we wanted it.
For my birthday my son J had given me a remote read meat thermometer. So after lunch we sat in the den and watched some baseball games. The nephews took turn running out to baste the ham every half-hour. When the remoter thermometer read 155 we started applying the glaze. After applying the glaze every 15 minutes during the last hour the ham was on the smoker we removed it from the smoker, tented it with tin foil and placed it in the oven to stay warm while we prepared the rest of supper.
It has been a long time since I've had a ham that was so tasty and juicy. I had thought that it might be dry and tough because of the long time it was smoking. However that wasn't the case. It was so tender you could cut it with your fork. I also think the red wine added a nice flavor that complimented the hickory smoke.
Maybe I will try smoking a turkey next time. If I do that I think I will use apple wood chips, wood chunks and apple cider in the water pan. Maybe P and I will do this late in September or early October.
Last week P purchased a 6 1/2-pound ham. Sunday evening, I prepared and applied a dry rub on the ham. I followed the first smoked ham recipe on the Texas Barbecue website. Then Monday morning the nephews showed up at 10 A.M. We got the smoker uncovered, the hickory wood and charcoal started. By 10:30 the ham was on the smoker and the long wait started.We found a bottle of red wine I had forgotten I had and added it to the water pan. Once the ham was on the smoker we made the sauce for basting the ham and the glaze for glazing the ham during the last hour of smoking. The recipe called for basting the ham once an hour, but we decided to baste it every half-hour.
We sat at the kitchen table and talked and talked. Every half-hour or so they would go check the temperature of the smoker. We had a terrible time keeping the temperature of the smoker low enough. However, as the day progressed we decided that the sun heating the top of the smoker caused the high reading. After lunch once the sun had moved and the smoker was in the shade the temp was right were we wanted it.
For my birthday my son J had given me a remote read meat thermometer. So after lunch we sat in the den and watched some baseball games. The nephews took turn running out to baste the ham every half-hour. When the remoter thermometer read 155 we started applying the glaze. After applying the glaze every 15 minutes during the last hour the ham was on the smoker we removed it from the smoker, tented it with tin foil and placed it in the oven to stay warm while we prepared the rest of supper.
It has been a long time since I've had a ham that was so tasty and juicy. I had thought that it might be dry and tough because of the long time it was smoking. However that wasn't the case. It was so tender you could cut it with your fork. I also think the red wine added a nice flavor that complimented the hickory smoke.
Maybe I will try smoking a turkey next time. If I do that I think I will use apple wood chips, wood chunks and apple cider in the water pan. Maybe P and I will do this late in September or early October.
posted by UP at 7:21 AM
2 Comments:
Sounds yummy! My P would have loved that. He's crazy about ham. It sounds like you had a great time visiting, too.
Please drop by and enter my blog giveaway. Let your friends know about it, too, if you like. If you win, I will happily make a pillowcase for you that's not 'girly'.
Dear Tippy.
My mouth is watering.
How did the ham taste?
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