Anyone done a ham?!

Hi everyone. I've been a keen amateur bbqer (is that a word?! should be!) for a while but new to smoking - the missus bought me the Frontier as a present following lots of hints from me!

We used it for the first time at the weekend and had a reasonable go at doing a whole chicken. Lots of lessons learned from that, including an order of better charcoal arriving today (5kgs of coconut stuff).

I'll get on to my question - has anyone had a go at doing a ham? I'm partial to a bit of oak smoked ham and wanted to try and do my own. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I've found a few things online, including suggestions you just take a normal already cooked ham and smoke it for a while.

Anyway, happy to be a member of the gang!

Hi David, welcome to the forum.

I do a ham every Christmas. Buy a Gammon Ham...

1. First soak the gammon to remove the excess salt. Small pieces need 8 hours or overnight; larger joints (up to 5kg) need to be soaked for at least 24 hours, with a couple of changes of water.

To check you’ve removed enough of the salt, slice off a small piece, drop it into a pan of boiling water and leave until cooked. Taste it and if it’s still too salty, leave the joint to soak a little longer in fresh water.

2. Place the water pan in the top stacker and place the ham inside, add cloves, fresh thyme, bay leaves and 2 litres water or apple juice, bring to the boil. Calculate the cooking time by weighing the gammon and allowing 20 minutes per 500g.

Push a skewer right into the centre of the joint to check doneness. It should give way and feel firm but not rubbery.

3. Leave the joint to cool in the liquid, then lift it out and cut away the skin, leaving behind the layer of fat. Score the fat in a diamond pattern, but not so deep that you cut into the meat.

4. Brush with your chosen glaze. Stud the centre of each diamond with a clove and smoke (I use hickory wood) for around 2 hours.

Thanks Mack! Just what I was after - we intend to do one for Christmas too, and we're thinking of doing the turkey in the smoker too. Of course it means we're going to have to have a couple of practices before the big day so I guess I'll have to take one for the team and eat my own body weight in meat!

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. I'm sure you will enjoy the results.