I'm NEVER Making Ham Any Other Way AGAIN

I've made quite a bit of smoked food in my life I Brine and smoked turkeys I've smoked over 60 racks of ribs at one time I've even smoked a whole hog but the one thing I've never done is cured and smoked a fresh ham now because I eat ham very often and especially around the holidays I am long overdue to fire up my smoker and tighten up my brine game to actually make one of these cured smoked hams so that's exactly what we're gonna do we're going to start off by making that brine sound good let's smoke you're going to need to start off with a pretty large pot I'm going to add in one gallon or 3.78 liters of cold water next I have a half gallon or 1.89 liters of apple cider than for some really great flavors we're going to add in a quarter cup or 70 grams of molasses this is really going to go a long way in the Brine and then in return into our ham next adding in two cups or 426 grams of packed light brown sugar then one and a half cups or 310 grams of coarse sea salt regular kosher salt will be totally fine here then we're going to add in two tablespoons or 16 grams of pickling spice I've got an awesome homemade recipe on my website if you want to do it homemade then we're going to add an additional one tablespoon or six grams of whole cloves then probably for the most important part we're adding in two and a half tablespoons or 50 grams of number one curing salt also known as Prague powder this is what's going to help preserve our pork and also give it pink color when it's done cooking now at this stage what we want to do is whisk everything until it is completely combined however for me this isn't quite good enough we still are going to need to heat this up and comey's outside of salt sugar water and curing salt so much of those brine ingredients are going to be completely dependent on you what about adding an orange or a lemon with its peel right in there what about onion or garlic everything I know about brines and ham tells me that that would work think about the wonderful ingredients that go well with pork all the fresh herbs you can absolutely put that in there let's have some fun all right adding that large pot right to a cooktop going to crank the heat up to high what we want to do is bring this to a boil and ensure all the sugar and the salt is completely dissolved in the liquid what I usually do is grab a whisk or even grab a rubber spatula and make sure nothing's on the bottom or sticking once it is completely combined I'm removing it from that hot burner putting it on a more cool surface like my stainless steel countertop then to help chill it quickly I'm adding in one gallon or 3.78 liters of ice this is going to again quickly help chill it we just need to get it to room temperature which probably takes about 30 minutes or so and the best part is if it's cold outside you could even pop it outside to help chill it even more this is called a fresh ham sometimes it's called a green ham it is a uncured unsmoked leg of pork now if you ask your butcher for a ham they're going to take you right over to those cured smoked hams you have to be specific okay you want an uncured unsmoked fresh ham and these things are beasts they can range from anywhere from 10 to 18 pounds but first we're going to trim it down let's bring out this big old 15 pound or 6803 gram fresh bone-in ham like I said also known as a green ham what we're going to do is just transfer it over to the cooktop because I want to remove that outside skin but I am going to keep some at the top this is going to help keep that bone in place there's this little piece of meat on there also going to help keep it intact so going down about three to four inches make a slice around it and then what we want to do is carve off the skin so holding the skin in one hand and using a very sharp knife in another hand we just want to trim back that skin from the meat and it's totally okay to leave a little bit of fat on there remember fat is Flavor obviously this will help season up and make our pork that much more juicy tender and delicious now once you've completely trim that skin away don't throw it away pop it in the freezer or for another date ever heard of chicharron or even cracklings you fry this up and that is some good eating my friends now for me it's personal preference to remove that skin because when I think about it it's really tough and it's going to be hard for the smoke to penetrate past that skin into the meat so that my ham is deliciously smoked what you could do is cut one inch squares all the way around going in about a quarter to a half inch deep you'll still get that crisp outside like I said you'll have a chicharron or a crackling but for me I don't want that I want a smoked ham that's what I'm going for all right here's what we do next transfer the fresh ham over to a large pan this is a deep 400 hotel pan then and you're going to need a meat injector of some sort you can pick this up on Amazon or any barbecue shop out there maybe even a butcher shop what I'm going to do is go over to our room temperature brine suck it in there and then every one to one and a half inches or about two and a half to four centimeters apart from each other we're going in two to four inches or five to ten centimeters deep all over this pork and ham you want to make sure all this brine gets in the inside if you don't there's going to be sections of your hand that are great and not pink and we don't want that this also obviously helps flavor up the inside as well once it is injected on all sides and all over we're transferring it over to a very large container pour in any of that extra brine from the pan then go grab that big old pot of room temperature brine pour it right over top into that container now even if it's sticking out a little bit you can just add a few cups of cold water it will not kill it or hurt it in any way you're going to be good next I'm going to put a lid right on the top and you're going to have to make room here okay this is a big container in the refrigerator for seven days total so obviously you've got some time before you need to come back and check things out now there are definitely different schools of thought when it comes to how long does it actually take to cure a ham there are some folks that say one day per one inch or two and a half centimeters for the diameter for the width of that ham there are other folks that say one day per one pound or 454 grams then there are others that say hey we can do this in 48 to 72 hours for me I'm somewhere in between I'm gonna go with two pounds or 908 grams per day so after seven days we should have a fully cured ham now we're not going to stop there though after the third day or the beginning of the fourth day I'm gonna come out I'm going to take that ham back out put it back in that pan using that injector I'm going to soak up more of that Brine and put it right into the ham and that same process over again I want to make sure this thing is cured from top to bottom then after that we're going to put it right back in that Brian put the lid on going back in the refrigerator to finish that full seven day curing process and then finally it's going to be smoking time all right day seven is here our ham is totally cured it looks amazing what we're doing is taking it out setting it right into our pan we need to rinse this really really well so let's head over to the sink run lots of cold water over while completely rubbing it down on all sides this is going to remove any sugar or salt caked on on the outside and there still might be some pickling spices somewhere that you may need to remove so take several minutes to do this very very thoroughly at this stage let's drain off any excess water come back over I'm going to transfer it over to a rack that's on a sheet tray you know I've got parchment paper underneath I can't help myself then you're going to need a bunch of paper dolls to completely Pat this dry on all sides front back Center you name it this thing needs to be extremely extremely dry at this point now I didn't make those one inch Cuts before grinding it because I wanted to remove the skin but now I'm going to make them because I want to try to get as much smoke into the middle of that ham as possible using a very sharp knife you only want to go in about a quarter of an inch to a half inch or about three quarters of a centimeter to a half a centimeter deep all the way around the pork wrap around then you're going to go up about an inch to an inch and a half or about two and a half to four centimeters up and do the same thing until well it looks like there's cohesive slices from top to bottom and you want to do this all the way around the ham I can't stress this enough just not on one side then what I'm going to do is come back and make more vertical slices down to sort of cross cut the other Cuts until essentially you have one inch or two and a half centimeter little squares all over now at this point I'm also going to Pat it dry very very well on all sides to make sure it's completely dry and you know what I totally forgot about this but we're going to need a form a pellicle on the outside of this ham so it's going to need to air dry in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours and look I get it we're still not ready to put this thing on the smoker yet don't get frustrated but if you take the time to form that pellicle really well which is that sticky outside substance the Smoke's going to adhere to it that much more in return our ham is going to be super delicious but there are other schools of thought at play some just Pat it down dry go right out to that smoker and that's going to be fine too however my guess is you're going to lose some of that beautiful outside caramelization color and flavor and of course smoke flavor which I want and look I've already taken seven days to brine this thing what's it worth to wait a little bit longer that's what I'm gonna do because I want to get it right it's day eight the pellicle has formed on my ham it looks great we're gonna bring it up to room temperature for about an hour this is a great time though because I'm going to load up my Yoder Hopper full of pellets I'm going to do a combination of apple and cherry but honestly pecan Oak Mesquite or hickory will also work then what I'm going to do is turn this thing on I want to get it to 250 degrees Fahrenheit or 120 degrees Celsius I know this is a little bit warmer than maybe a normal 225 but I promise you this is a great temp to start it all right let's go back and grab our ham once our smoker is to temperature now when placing it on there since my Firebox is on the left side where a lot of the heat is I'm going to put the thicker in towards that side and then of course don't forget your thermometer pierce it in the thickest part of the hand we want to make sure we get it right we're going to smoke this for several hours until it gets about 115 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit or 46 to 49 degrees Celsius at this point the Ham's been smoking for three hours try your best not to go out there and keep lifting the door like my buddy Tony always says if you're looking you ain't cooking let it smoke but at this stage it's at 115 degrees Fahrenheit internally or 46 degrees Celsius you have to start thinking about the glaze now if you've got a favorite glaze out there that you just love maybe pass down through your family use it if not I've got three great recipes that you can check out all of them are delicious the one that I'm gonna go with it's an apple cider mustard base I feel like it's going to complement everything else I've done with the ham to this point the flavors in the brine even the apple wood chips so that's what I'm going with once it hits 120 we're going to start glazing all right we are at that 120 degrees Fahrenheit or 49 degrees Celsius internal temperature it's time to start basting this thing looks awesome so you want to generously base this on all sides that completely coat it and so that glaze sticks and adheres to the ham while it smokes and we're going to come back and do this every 30 minutes now we're gonna do that until it reaches a hundred and forty degrees Fahrenheit or 60 degrees Celsius once it hits this point we're going to crank up the heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit or 163 degrees Celsius and we're gonna do one last based at this stage then we cook it until it reaches 855 degrees internally or 69 degrees Celsius I know that is a lot just follow this I promise you it's foolproof once it is 155 degrees Fahrenheit or 69 degrees Celsius internally it is finished this is not a smoked pulled pork this thing looks incredible let's remove move the thermometer we're going to transfer it from the smoker right onto a rack over a sheet tray we're going to let it rest for about 30 minutes before we get into it the smell the smell it it is so good yeah I may have taken off a little piece and tried it the flavors are incredible and it's still I've never done this before but knowing how to brine knowing how to smoke I put those things into practice over and over again so those techniques still apply to this that's why I'm able to do it and that's why you can do it as well I promise you that now let's slice it up and have some more so transfer it over to a cutting board and when it comes to slicing it you really just want to carve and slice around the bone and make sure you're not hitting anything the bone is your guide slice and carve around it against the grain look at all that juicy goodness not an overly difficult recipe but it is a Time labor of love from the brine the rest and the smoke but I promise you it is worth it I think you and your family and friends are going to love this and if you do you've got a lot of leftover ham definitely check out how to take it and put it in my amazing ham and bean soup recipe I've got an awesome video I'll see you on there

Channel: Chef Billy Parisi

Views: 461,504

Keywords: billy parisi, brined ham, brined ham recipe, chef billy, chef billy parisi, cooking, cured and smoked ham, cured and smoked ham recipe, cured ham, cured ham recipe, double smoked ham, easter ham, ham making, homemade ham, how to brine a ham, how to cure a ham, how to smoke a ham, making ham, smoked ham, smoked ham recipe, twice smoked ham

Id: Lv2I28AawRE

Length: 14min 2sec (842 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 31 2023