Review/Rate this Recipe Save to MyRecipes Rating:

Title: Smoked Virginia Ham
Yield: 1 Serving

Ingredients

      1    35 pound Virginia-cured
           -country ham

Instructions

As long as we are talking ULTIMATE, my vote goes for the Virginia cured
country ham which I cooked last weekend. We had about 60 friends over for
our annual Silver-Queen and steamed crab Fest. I selected a moldy
thirty-five pound ham from the smokehouse, washed it and soaked it about 18
hrs. I started the fire in our masonry cooker about 10:00 Fri. night and
put in the ham skin side up. The intention was to slow cook with apple and
oak for 14 hrs to an internal temp of 160F as I had done with a cured
shoulder last month, but I woke at 3:00 and the fire had gotten too hot. I
had forgotten to activate the alarm on The Sunbeam thermometer in the
firebox and the temp was over 400F. Luckily, the ham fat had not caught
fire. After knocking down the fire with water, it cooked the rest of the
night at about 275F so that the internal temp was up to 170F by 8:00 in the
morning. I allowed it to cool slowly in the cooker so that at noon the
internal temp was still 160F.
We served the ham about 7 p.m. and it was fantastic. The size and ample
covering of skin and fat had protected the meat from the excessive
temperature. It was crusty on the outside and moist (for cured ham) on the
inside. It was pullable but firm enough to slice and though only seven
months old had a good depth of aged flavor and just the right amount of
smoke. After the pickers finished, we only had a few scraps left for
ourselves.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Contributor: Dan Gill

Preparation Time: 0:00

Reviews