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Spiral-Sliced
Ham |
Originally
posted: 03/01/2002
Last updated:
03/30/2010 |
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Summary
- Buy a spiral-sliced
half ham labeled "ham with natural juices".
- Smoke at 225-250°F to
an internal temperature of 120°F.
- Use a mild fruit smoke
wood, and go easy on the amount
of wood used.
Spiral-sliced ham with potatoes, corn, and apple sauce
Spiral-sliced hams are a popular choice not only during the
holidays but any time of year.
These hams are convenient to serve because they're pre-sliced and
"ready to eat", and their quality is usually quite good because most are a
"ham with natural juices" product instead of the lesser quality
"ham with water added" product.
Here are
some pictures I took on June 4, 2006 when I prepared this ham.
As
always...click on any of the pictures to
view a larger image.
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No Preparation Required
This photo shows a Cook's
Spiral-Sliced Honey Ham. It's a shank end, ready-to-eat half ham with natural juices,
weighing 9.55 pounds.
There's absolutely no prep
involved with a ham like this one, nor does it have to sit at room temperature
before heating. Just remove the
packaging and it's ready to go into the WSM.
Place the ham face down on a
foil-lined pan that will fit on the top cooking grate in the WSM. This prevents the slices from separating
and even falling off the bone during heating.
To learn more about the various
types of ham and ham terminology, visit the Ham Selection & Preparation
page.
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Fire The WSM
Fire-up the WSM using the
Standard Method, using enough fuel to
run the cooker at 225-250°F for 3-4 hours. About 1-1/2 chimneys of
charcoal briquettes should be sufficient.
When the coals are well
lit, assemble the cooker, add cold water to the water pan, and place a
small amount of smoke wood on the fire. Remember, these hams already have
smoke flavor added, so go extremely light on the smoke wood. Mild woods like cherry, apple,
oak or combinations of these work nicely with ham.
I used two small chunks
of dry apple wood.
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Heat The Ham
Place the ham on the top
cooking grate.
Start with all bottom
vents closed and the top vent wide open. When the cooker drops into the
225-250°F range, begin opening the bottom vents slightly to maintain this temperature. Leave the top vent wide open during the
entire cooking process.
Heat the ham at 225-250°F to
an internal temperature of 120°F. There's no cooking involved
here...remember, a ready-to-eat ham is already fully cooked, so you're
just heating the ham to serving temperature. This may seem like a low
finished temperature, but anything much higher risks drying out the
edges of the ham slices.
There's no need to turn
the ham during heating, but you can baste it occasionally, if you like.
Just for fun, I basted this ham at the
start and again every hour with a 2:1 mixture of Martinelli's
Premium Apple Juice and Maker's Mark Whisky.
Here's how the cooker and
meat temperatures went for this ham.
| Time |
Lid
Temp |
Meat
Temp |
Vent
1
% |
Vent
2
% |
Vent
3
% |
| 3:08pm(b) |
- |
- |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 3:40pm |
280 |
41 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 4:00pm |
240 |
41 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 4:15pm |
215 |
44 |
50 |
0 |
0 |
| 4:30pm(b) |
218 |
48 |
50 |
50 |
0 |
| 4:45pm |
225 |
57 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
| 5:00pm |
225 |
64 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
| 5:15pm |
225 |
71 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
| 5:30pm(b) |
225 |
78 |
100 |
100 |
50 |
| 5:45pm |
215 |
87 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 6:00pm |
213 |
95 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 6:15pm |
211 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 6:30pm(b) |
205 |
104 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 6:45pm |
200 |
113 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 7:00pm |
205 |
118 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 7:23pm |
200 |
120 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
(b)
basted ham
(s) stirred coals |
Note that the vent percentages represent
the way I set the vents at the time indicated. |
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Serve
The Ham
When the ham reaches an
internal temperature of 120°F, it's ready to serve. Tips for carving
a spiral-sliced ham can be found on the Ham Selection & Preparation
page.
Picture 1 shows the
finished ham. Picture 2 shows how I served it with
barbecue seasoned potatoes, cut corn, and
apple sauce.
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Make It Sweet, Turn Up
The Heat
Looking for a sweet and
spicy ham? In the book
Dr. BBQ's Big-Time Barbecue Road Trip!, Ray Lampe has a recipe for
Smoked Ham Kansas City Style (p. 22) that follows a similar process to
the one described
above, but rubs the ham with a mixture of 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1
teaspoon cayenne pepper, then heats it to 160°F internal temperature
using oak as the smoke wood. |
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