2019 HAM MISTAKE... or was it?

[pitchfork_man]

2019 HAM MISTAKE... or was it?
I tried to do MEATHEAD'S recipe this weekend. He calls for smoking 30 minutes before foiling... but...WHOOOOPS!!

Fell asleep and that ham smoked at 225F, for 4 hours extra! Oh great. This just happened. I went ahead with a quick foiling, glazing, and searing. Ended up over 5 hours total cook time! Internal temp 175.

I let myself down. Worse yet, I let my ham down..

I absolutely dreaded the painful results, which would confirm the stupidity of my error, and would further remind me of the money and time lost on previous cooking follies and failures through the years...

So how bad was it??

[pitchfork_man]

it looks OK but when I took a bite, I was shocked.... this was not what I expected. At all!

It was perfectly delicious and juicy! See photos.

I want to share what I did, and why this "mistake" was AWESOME!!

[pitchfork_man]

First of all, this was a regular Kroger spiral smoked ham, on sale. Nothing special at all.
Big green egg at 225, apple wood chips. Water pan 2" below.

First I injected with about 1 cup of Maple Syrup, grade B robust style. Tried to get it mostly in the middle areas.

Next, I opened up and sprayed water in-between all the slices. all the way around. (surprised how much did NOT run right back out, don't know why).

Smoked for 4.5 hours.

Foiled with 1/2 cup apple juice, 20 min.

opened, glazed, cooked 10 minutes.

Pulled out of oven, used SEARSALL to sear outside.
__________________________________________________ ______________________

Obviously I was completely relieved! "Wonderful" and "Perfect" and "OMG" were the comments from folks. The smoke was indeed perfect, not too much, the flavor was throughout, and so was the juiciness.

I think the water pan, the injection, and the water spray were the "secrets" that actually saved the day! (despite the ridiculously long cook time)

What are your thoughts?

[Ahumadora]

Ham is a big solid chunk of meat and can take some abuse.

[tbob4]

I love it!!

[IowaGirl]

I'm not sure the added liquids did all that much to keeping the ham moist, to be honest. Most ham has a lot of water in it already from the curing process, so IMO when I cook a ham, I'm interested in reducing the moisture content in the meat and thus concentrating and enhancing its flavor.

I recently smoked a ham at 275-300F for 2 hours directly on the grill's grate, baked it covered in a pan for another 1 hour at 275-300, then baked it another 1 hour uncovered but still in the pan with a glaze. No liquids were added. Four hours later with no added liquid, the ham was plenty moist.

[pitchfork_man]

Yeah but everybody kept warning about it drying out... so I did whatever I could to keep it moist.
Interesting, the flavor 'reduction' makes sense.... and the higher temps were OK for your ham also.
COOL! Makes me feel better about the long cook.
What were you cooking on ? And, did you use Chris' glaze?

[IowaGirl]

I used my new Hasty Bake cooker to do this ham. I lightly glazed it with homemade peach jam with a bit of Hatch chile powder stirred in. In hindsight, I should have used a jam with a bolder flavor to go better with the ham, but my Mister voted for peach over raspberry, so that's what I used.

I think you did good with your cook. The happy silence at the table while people were eating and the many compliments afterward that are proof you did it right.

[marshall]

it sure looks tasty, glad it worked out for you!

[texastweeter]

the ultimate ham recipe is one of the things here that really plugged a glaring hole in my game...now if I can just get bread and NY style pizza down...

[pitchfork_man]

I had tried something a few years back, called "THE BREAD" that was only 2 ingredients and it was devoured instantly by the Superbowl crowd. From what I remember, the one bite I had was excellent. https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-bread/

[texastweeter]

I have my garlic bread recipe down pat. It involves butter granulated garlic, Worcestershire sauce, roasted garlic, fresh garlic, salt, and red chili flakes. I'm looking more along the lines of getting some kind of consistency when baking my own breads.