whole fresh ham

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shadow

Assistant Cook
Joined
Aug 1, 2010
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12
saw a whole fresh ham, approximately 25 pounds, at the local supermarket....and it got me thinking.
i normally do a pig roast with a 30-35 pound dressed pig...and while i enjoy the production of smoking a whole pig...perhaps i'd get better results if i went with a couple of 25 pounders instead.
has anyone enjoyed any success with smoking large whole fresh hams?
inquiring minds want to know...
 
Should work just fine folks been eating them for quite a spell now. They are real hard to find around here and the price is always off the charts on the high side. Occasionally see them around Christmas for some reason. Now my old chum Pigman Jim do a lot of whole hawg cooking and the yield on them whole porkers is just pitiful. Big whole hawg feed surprising few folks. His favorite trick was to cook a small whole pig where everybody could have a pinch or two then fill them on up on butts. Taking a wild guess the butts would be a more economical choice and not quite as hammy textured.
 
It is all just pulled pork isn't it? The whole pig is mainly for presentation I think. Good luck.
 
I use fresh hams to add to my pulled pork. Fresh ham with skin on are injected with apple juice and large X carved in meat to let the juice of two pork butts on rack above ham to soak into it. Hams are lean with very little fat of it's own.
 
Sounds like a great plan to me. Think thats why whole shoulders work so well. You get some hammy overtones but not overwhelming. Will agree hams aint as fat as butts and are way leaner than a picnic but they aint nowhere as lean as loins. Right?
 
as long as it's not cured, hams are fine for making bbq...but as noted above, they
are leaner than the shoulders.

A local bbq joint only uses fresh hams because they are leaner...he claims a better yield.

The reason they are hard to find is because most are made in....well ...hams.
 
Fresh (me thinks) means no smoke or injection of flavor, just like fresh pork bellies are only bacon after brine and smoke. Checked today at local produce/meat market 18.5-21# whole fresh hams $1.39 lb, pork butts 9#-11# $1.39 lb. BW you are right about not as lean as loins, hams have enough fat in the meat to make it moist, and as Capt. said high yield, or less lost net weight pound.
 
Well that is a great price on the fresh hams. I start buying butts when they hit .99 or close and 1.38 is purty dang close:) Hard to find em much at that price these days. Seems like I saw a big fresh ham at Albertsons a few years back which was marked 2.99. Guess it must be considered some type of specialty item or something in this area anyway.
 
did the 6th annual family pig roast last saturday...deconstructed. purchased a 26 lb fresh ham...a 10 lb pork shoulder and a couple racks of ribs. smoked them at 225 in my barrel smoker for 12 hours...and got them up to 195 overnight in the over at 215. great taste....great yield. took the ribs out of the smoker after 5 hours.
fed 35 people and had a ton leftover to feed 3 families the next day. probably won't ever do the whole hog again. too much waste. fresh ham had a milder taste...pork shoulders a little more pork flavor. used hickory for smoke and used a cider squirt on the hour to keep it moist.
 
shadow said:
did the 6th annual family pig roast last saturday...deconstructed. purchased a 26 lb fresh ham...a 10 lb pork shoulder and a couple racks of ribs. smoked them at 225 in my barrel smoker for 12 hours...and got them up to 195 overnight in the over at 215. great taste....great yield. took the ribs out of the smoker after 5 hours.
fed 35 people and had a ton leftover to feed 3 families the next day. probably won't ever do the whole hog again. too much waste. fresh ham had a milder taste...pork shoulders a little more pork flavor. used hickory for smoke and used a cider squirt on the hour to keep it moist.


Great report, thanks!
 
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