Pulled.....Ham? Looked the biz but kind of a failure

[AliCT]

So, we recently got ourselves a whole pig butchered up for our freezer. The Butts and Shoulders have yielded exquisite pulled pork thus far, but I thought this weekend I would try a fresh (uncured, unsmoked) ham in the same manner. Looks almost like a shoulder anyway, figured it wouldn't be much of an issue. Kept it at 250 in the rec tec for about 9 hours up to 203 inside, and it looked gorgeous (see picture), but was very dry and almost ropey when we pulled and ate it.
So, did I cook to high? too long? or is it just a bad idea to do this to a ham? Neither hubby or I particularly like traditional ham, and always end up using our hams for Pork Chile verde....

[Jerod Broussard]

BAD idea to do ham that high.

[_John_]

Fresh hams have nowhere near the fat content of shoulder, when you cook meat that long a good bit of the moisture comes from all of that melted fat. Since the ham isn't very fatty, it dries out.

[AliCT]

Huh. So any ideas on good fresh ham recipes? We are not really traditional ham fans so Meatheads' recipes aren't that helpful in this one case. Prepare the same way and just cook it up to 135 or 140 or so? I have 6 of these bad boys left in the freezer, would prefer NOT to ruin them in similar fashion!

[Skip]

I have done a few on the pellet grill over the years. Seasoned it like a pork butt. Smoked at 225 the whole time. Always foiled for the last 5-6 hours. It's good to add some apple juice or other liquid at foil time. Since they are so much leaner than a pork butt they don't seem to pull as well as a pork butt. Sometimes I ended up slicing those parts that wouldn't pull as well. Don't stress about them they are just a different cut of meat than a pork butt that we always hear about more often. Hope this helps.

[HorseDoctor]

Or, slice them like steaks & cook like boneless loin chops...

[Hardwarehank]

I had a half a hog butchered up earlier in the year and had them keep the hams fresh too. I roast mine on my kettle with SNS at about 225 until they're 120-125 internal and then reverse sear to about 140-145. Pork shoulder is delicious that way too if you want to try something different.