Spent most of my morning reading posts from KevinJ, Oyster, BBQ_Fan, etc.. Not only am I really hungry now, but it got me thinking about my upcoming Christmas ham project.
A friend of mine raises his own meat. Another friend and neighbor of mine built his own butcher shop (welcome to rural Ohio..). I love to smoke meats. We all love to drink beer. I think you can see where this is going..
Long story short, I came into possession of a beautiful, fresh, 20lb whole ham. The question now is, what do I do with it? I've decided to attempt to cure and smoke this bad boy for Christmas.
Materials:
- 5 gallon bucket
- XL Ziplock bags - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U6A3EY?redirect=true&ref_=s9_simh_c...
- Prague Powder #1 - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008X6KE0E?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_...
- Morton Kosher salt
Here's the recipes I'm following:
- http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/curing_ham.html
- http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/zen_of_ham.html
- http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/ham_on_the_grill.html
- http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/curing_meats.html
The ham is currently thawing out in my fridge. The plan is to drop it in the cure/brine solution on Friday and let it chill (get it?) until Christmas morning when I can start the smoke. Meathead is pretty thorough in his descriptions, and I trust his judgement wholeheartedly, but I've always been one to add my own twist to canned recipes. This being my first and possibly only time curing/smoking a ham, I'd like to hear from somebody with experience.
My questions to our makeshift BBQ community:
- Anybody have any experience curing a ham? If so, do you add anything to your cure other than salt and Nitrites?
- What type of wood would you suggest for the smoke?
- Would you rub the ham before smoking? If so, which rub would you use?
- Any good glaze recipes?
- Any other tips/tricks/suggestions that might not be mentioned in Meathead's article(s)?
We'll see how this thread goes. I also have a slab of uncured bacon from the same hog that might be worthy of it's own discussion.