🥩 I started smoking…

For Christmas Nicole purchased me a smoker. I have never used a smoker before, but the idea behind it seemed like something I could get behind given my love of cooking as well as kitchen gadgets.

I found a really good deal on a 7lb bone-in ham shortly after receiving the smoker from Nicole so I figured why not, it was an affordable way to give it an initial try, and if I messed it up somehow or another it wouldn’t be a major loss.

The first lesson learned was the wood pellets I ordered off Amazon days before were not able to be used in the smoker as it ONLY calls for woodchips, with that being said I had to return those and then ended up picking up some Apple flavored woodchips from the local Home Depot for just shy of $5 a bag which ended up being cheaper than the wood pellets from Amazon anyways.

I read a few recipes and tips on smoking a full ham, one of which was NOT to use any included glaze that might have come with the ham. And the other was to remove any excess fat as people trim that off when eating anyways and it only creates a barrier that the smoke can not penetrate in those areas which made sense.

After preheating the smoker to 250 degrees I placed the full ham on the rack as well as added a half cup of wet apple woodchips and let it do its thing. I added more chips every 45 minutes for the first couple of hours and then left it.

In total, I let it smoke for about 4.5hrs and until the internal temp of the already cooked ham had reached 150 degrees. I could have pulled it earlier but I ended up going to see Spider-man No way home and figured letting it smoke longer was not going to hurt.

After getting home I removed it from the smoker and placed it in the oven at 350 degrees just to bring up the temperature more. It was only in the oven for around 20 minutes before removing it.

As you can see in the pictures below it really took the smoke well, and once I cut into it the ham was still very juicy and tender. I now have more sliced ham than I know what to do with, so needless to say I will be eating ham for a few days ha! Looking forward to the next thing I end up smoking which is likely to either be wings or a brisket.