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If you were fortunate enough to get a bear this spring, give this Easter Bear recipe from Hank Shaw a shot!
Ingredients
- 1 or 2 skinless hams, each about 2 to 4 pounds
- ½ cup kosher salt
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon Instacure No. 1
- ½ cup honey
Instructions
Mix the salt, curing salt, sugar, and a ½ gallon of water until the salt dissolves. Submerge the hams in the brine for two to four days in the fridge. The longer you brine the hams, the saltier they’ll be and the rosier they’ll get from the cure. For 2½-pound hams, a 48-hour cure will come out very lightly cured. If you prefer a more traditional ham-like flavor, go a bit longer.
When you’re ready to smoke, take the hams out, pat them dry with paper towels, and set them on a wire rack in a cool, breezy place, such as on the kitchen table under the ceiling fan with the window open. Let them sit there for two to three hours, so they can dry a bit and develop the pellicle that helps the surface of the hams take the smoke better. You can also leave them in the fridge uncovered overnight.
Smoke over your favorite wood, such as cherry, for two hours, getting the smoker’s temperature up to 200 degrees F in this time. Meanwhile, heat the honey in a little pot so it’ll flow better. At the two-hour mark, paint the hams with the honey. Paint again every hour until you’re done smoking.
You can finish the hams entirely in the smoker, until you get an internal temperature of 160 to 175 degrees F. Or you can finish the ham in the oven. To do this, move the hams from the smoker to a preheated 375-degree F oven, painting them with honey every 20 minutes. This works well because the final hot temperatures fully cook the ham and the honey caramelizes nicely, which doesn’t happen so well at the low temps of the smoker.
Let the hams cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or cold.
Source: honest-food.net
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Carnivore Magazine Issue 8.
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