Weekend Things
Starting the weekend off on the right foot by having pizza at work, yay for no cooking.
It’s a miracle if I can finish this gift sweater by Christmas. Luckily it’s for the man so it’s not that time sensitive.
Snow, lots of snow. I was just out shoveling for an hour so we aren’t completely snowed in by the morning when we have to leave for work. Here I’m standing on the terrace so it looks like there is only a few centimetres of snow but this is just from this evening. The official snow depth is 22cm here, I reckon we’ll get a lot more by April 2023.
Ending the evening by the fire is always fantastic.
It’s going to be a busy week ahead but I’m looking forward to a very nice and relaxing Christmas.
Note to self: buy the ham!
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We have 31 cm here. A few days ago, this was the coldest region in the country.
Southern Finland has been getting it more than usual this winter right?
It seems that way.
I have never tasted alcoholic ginger beer, we usually use non-alcoholic ginger beer to complete drinks :)
I absolutely have to find it, I hope it exists in Italy haha
try adding ginger beer to rum, now that is awesome! does give me heartburn though
That does sound interesting if nothing else 😁
don't knock it til you try it 👍
I have that same note... I'm smoking a ham on the 23rd as long as I remember to buy it. 😃
Hey, I’m gonna smoke the ham too, never done it before. Any tips? We just have a little electric smoker with no temperature control so I was thinking of smoking the ham for a couple hours and them to the oven for the rest of the time.
I'm planning on prepping the ham by cutting a diamond pattern in the meat (trimming excess fat) ... about 2cm apart and maybe 2cm deep. This should add to the appearance and give a greater surface area for the smoke to adhere to.
When you put the wood chips in the smoker, try to choose chips that don't have any bark on them - bark tends to be more acrid, and leave a bitter taste. For wood chips, think of whatever you might eat ham with.... I usually use some maple and some apple. A little cherry will add some colour to the meat.
Put the wood chips on and let them smoulder for 5 minutes or so... watch the smoke. When it turns from a white, opaque smoke, to a slightly grey, semi-translucent smoke, it's ready to roll. Now, you can add the ham.
In the smoker, when you put the ham in (Thickest part down, bone sticking upwards), at the bottom, put a metal pan containing apple juice/cider vinegar and water. It will evaporate, providing a little bit of moisture to surface of the ham, allowing the smoke to stick to it better. The apple cider and/or apple juice will add a hint of flavour. While it's smoking, check it every 30 minutes or so and keep adding water or juice - so that it doesn't dry out (if it dries out, it will burn quickly and add a bitter taste). Place the pan under the ham, so the drippings fall into the pan instead of your smoker. If the drippings land on the heat source, it will burn up and add a bitter taste to your smoke.
Then, keep your temp of the smoker around 160C. For the time that you are doing the smoking.
Since you are going to finish it in the oven ... I'd plan to have it fully cooked (smoker + oven) about 1 hours before you are going to serve it. When you pull it from the smoker, wrap it in tin foil. Then put it in the oven until it's around 70C. It will continue to cook after you remove it. - likely ending around 75C-80C. When you pull it out, keep it in it's tin foil and wrap it all in some old towels and/or an insulated cooler.. This will allow it to cool slowly - and reabsorb the juices (mellowing the smoke)
Now, you've got an hour to make everything else. And when you are ready to plate, all that needs to happen is to pull the ham out of the cooler/towels, then unwrap the foil and carve.
I'm making many assumptions. But I know that you have had experience in a kitchen... so obviously treat this as simple recommendations ... ham in Finland is likely much different than Ham in Canada. If you think your ham still has lots of collagen/connective tissue in it, use a longer cook at a lower temperature etc etc. Since your ham has already been smoked, use milder woods (like fruit wood)... but if it hasn't been smoked, you can add some hickory/pecan/crazy Finnish wood. :)
Good luck!!!
Now that’s some extensive instructions, have you thought about blogging? 😝
This is the kind of ham we have here, with skin, fat and fishnets so the ham doesn’t dry out while cooking. Though I like mine very overcooked.
I’ll have to play around with it because the smoker is quite small and I need to figure out what temperature it stays at. Thank you for the tips though, I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Here the main Christmas celebration is on the 24th, I’ll put the ham in the smoker around lunch time and dinner time will be when the ham is ready and willing 😁
That looks like a boneless butt/shoulder ham. I'd use 40 minutes per pound as a guide. I would likely leave the digital probe (if you have one) hanging in the smoker and use it for a more accurate air temperature. Then, when you put the ham in the oven, insert the probe into the ham.
bon appetit
The ham turned out pretty darn good! We had it in the smoker for about two hours (inside temp was about 37 degrees at that point) then a couple more hours in the oven. I turned off the oven at 79 degrees and let the ham rest for about an hour before cutting into it. I was surprised how much smoke flavour it had from only two hours in the smoker, but it did mellow out by the next day. All in all, it was a good choice to put in the smoker.