How To Smoke A Ham – Step-by-Step Guide
Smoking is a delicious yet often underutilized way to imbue your foods with additional flavor. Sure, you could cut corners and use something like liquid smoke or some magic combination of spices that your buddy swears is "just like real smoke flavor", but we all know it's not the same. If you're jonesing for some smoked meat, there's no other choice but to get out there and smoke some meat. Whether it's Easter, or you have a ham recipe, this smoked ham recipe is excellent for fresh ham with a nice cook time. The prep time is minimal and out of the pork recipes, such as for pork butt, pork loin, pork chops, pork shoulder, spiral cut ham, and pre-cooked ham, this will get you started on a meaty smoked ham in no time.
Smoked ham is a great meat to try out when you're first getting into the swing of things, especially if you don't really know how smoking works. How do you smoke? What do you smoke with? How long do you smoke a ham? What are the best techniques for smoking? Should you check the meat often? These questions and more are about to be answered as we cover how to perfectly smoke a ham.
What You Need For Smoking A Ham
- Meat Smoker
- 1 large metal baking sheet
- Assorted wood chips of choice
- Natural chunk charcoal
- Plastic wrap
- 10 pound bone-in spiral ham, cooked
- Spice rub (details below)
- Digital read thermometer
- Honey, barbecue sauce, and/or apple juice (optional).
The kind of wood you will use for smoking will depend on the area you live in and your taste preference. Hickory is a popular option, as is cherry wood. There are plenty of guides online that can give you an idea of what a particular kind of wood smoke will taste like on your meat, letting you plan what kind you'd like to try and give you ideas for mixing different types of wood. We also have an article on 5 Things You Must Know To Use Wood Chips For smoking.
How To Smoke A Ham
With supplies gathered, we'll finally be able to move on to the process of smoking your ham.
Step 1: Prep Work
What you put in your spice rub will depend on personal tastes. Salt, sugar, onion powder, and paprika are all popular options. Any kind of barbecue spice mix could work, as well. Here's a great and quick recipe for a rub you could try if you don't feel like experimenting on your own.
Step 2: Seasoning the Ham
Once the rub is assembled and mixed together, take a sharp knife and cut perpendicular lines through just the skin on your ham (it should look like a checker board by the time you're done). Coat your ham in the rub and pat it firmly against all sides, making sure the rub gets into the cuts you made. Place your ham on a metal baking sheet and cover it with plastic wrap, placing it in the refrigerator for at least four hours and up to fourteen to allow the meat to absorb the flavor.
Step 3: Starting the Smoker
This step can change depending on what you use to smoke with. For the purposes of this list, though, we'll be using a wood fired smoker, though these same steps can be applied regardless of the smoker you choose to use. Simply light a few chunks of charcoal and your wood chips (or log if you prefer) and allow the smoker to come to temperature, somewhere between 230 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step 4: Smoking the Ham
Take the ham out of the fridge and remove the plastic wrap or aluminum foil, letting it warm up slightly for half an hour (to save time, you could do this part right before you start up your smoker). After the ham has come up to temperature, place ham directly onto the smoker grate, flat side down. You should not place ham too close to the firebox, as this could cause the sugars on the outside of the ham to burn rather than caramelize.
You'll want to smoke your ham for at least three hours, though you should only go longer at your own peril. Keep the heat at a consistent temperature for the entire time. Medium heat is fine. If the heat starts to drop down, adjust the temperature as needed and check to see if you need to add more charcoal or wood to keep the firing burning hot and the smoke cloud dense.
While your ham smokes, try to avoid messing with it as much as possible. The only exception to this is when you're adding flavor to it mid-smoke. While these steps are optional, they make your meat that much more succulent and delicious and are more than worth the effort. You may want to consider applewood.
Every half hour, thoroughly spritz your ham with apple juice in a spray bottle. This helps the meat to retain its moisture and caramelizes on the outside. After around two and half hours of smoking, you can apply barbecue sauce to the outside of the ham, coating liberally. You can either make your own or use your favorite store brand. Additionally, you could mix around 1/4 of a cup of honey into your sauce for extra sweetness and to add a marvelous shine to the outside of your ham once it's finished.
Step 5: Serving It Up
Once you've reached your desired level of smokiness, remove ham from the smoker and serve it however you like. As the ham was already cooked before you started the smoking process, you won't need to let it rest before digging in. This also means you're not really shooting for any specific internal temperature; as long as the meat is hot, it's ready to eat. Though you could go through the trouble of slicing it up into portions, it's much easier and a lot more fun to just plate it up on a serving platter and let people hack off however much they want from the sides.
Do you want to impress your guests even more? We have a perfect recipe for Best Honey Glazed Ham, check it out!
Conclusion
With these simple tips and the right materials on hand, you should be ready to smoke your ham like a pro. How'd you like this guide? Have any tips or tricks on smoking meat you'd like to tell us about? What's your favorite way to eat ham? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.
How To Smoke A Ham
Equipment
Ingredients
- 10
Pound
Bone-in spiral ham, cooked - Spice rub
- Honey, barbecue sauce, and/or apple juice (optional).
Instructions
- What you put in your spice rub will depend on personal tastes.
- Salt, sugar, onion powder, and paprika are all popular options. Any kind of barbecue spice mix could work, as well.
- Once the rub is assembled and mixed together, take a sharp knife and cut perpendicular lines through just the skin on your ham (it should look like a checker board by the time you're done).
- Coat your ham in the rub and pat it firmly against all sides, making sure the rub gets into the cuts you made.
- Place your ham on a metal baking sheet and cover it with plastic wrap, placing it in the refrigerator for at least four hours and up to fourteen to allow the meat to absorb the flavor.
- Simply light a few chunks of charcoal and your wood chips (or log if you prefer) and allow the smoker to come to temperature, somewhere between 230 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Take the ham out of the fridge and remove the plastic wrap or aluminum foil, letting it warm up slightly for half an hour (to save time, you could do this part right before you start up your smoker).
- After the ham has come up to temperature, place ham directly onto the smoker grate, flat side down.
- You should not place ham too close to the firebox, as this could cause the sugars on the outside of the ham to burn rather than caramelize.
- You'll want to smoke your ham for at least three hours, though you should only go longer at your own peril.
- Keep the heat at a consistent temperature for the entire time.Medium heat is fine.
- If the heat starts to drop down, adjust the temperature as needed and check to see if you need to add more charcoal or wood to keep the firing burning hot and the smoke cloud dense.
- While these steps are optional, they make your meat that much more succulent and delicious and are more than worth the effort.
- Every half hour, thoroughly spritz your ham with apple juice in a spray bottle.
- After around two and half hours of smoking, you can apply barbecue sauce to the outside of the ham, coating liberally.
- You could mix around 1/4 of a cup of honey into your sauce for extra sweetness and to add a marvelous shine to the outside of your ham once it's finished.
- Once you've reached your desired level of smokiness, remove ham from the smoker and serve it however you like.
- As the ham was already cooked before you started the smoking process, you won't need to let it rest before digging in.
Nutrition
Download This Recipe
Save this recipe in your Cave Tools BBQ app or download other recipes from the community recipes exchange!
