Had someone point me to recipes by "Dr. Chicken". I've tried searching but don't see those links anywhere that I must have had then and followed.
It seems I'd found a few recipes for brining and injecting a fresh ham including the nitrates / pink salt ...
Does anyone know the Dr. Chicken page(s) that I might have found.
Okay, you asked for it... it's a recipe & technique by Dave Spence, this was popular on the original BGE forum in the early 2000's.
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Posted by Jim Minion on April 20, 2003 at 12:07:40:
Dr. Chicken’s Double Smoked Ham
Ham should be a fully cooked or partially cooked ½ shank variety or can be shoulder variety (water added can be used, as long as the water added does not exceed 23% water added product.) If it is pre-smoked with hickory, that seems to work out best. Patti/Jean or Cooks among the best, but other varieties can be used!
Glazing Sauce:
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup maple syrup (use dark grade B real maple syrup if available)(dark grade B has more flavor than grade A)
¼ cup honey
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 – 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp instant coffee granules (use a good brand because it makes a difference)
1 Tbsp dry ground mustard
2 Tbsp orange juice concentrate (a good brand provides better flavor)
Blend all ingredients in a sauce pan with a wire whip and heat slightly until everything combines into a viscous or thick looking sauce.
Cooking instructions:
Score outer skin of ham to a depth of ½ inch in a crisscross diamond pattern. This will allow the glazing sauce to penetrate below the skin, into the actual ham. Place ham (un-glazed) into a shallow roasting pan or roasting rack. If pineapple and cherries are desired on the outside, add them when you start the glazing process. Cook in oven @ 275° – 300° with a loose tent of aluminum foil over the top for 25 to 30 minutes per lb. Baste with glazing sauce the last hour of cooking time and continue to cook until the ham reaches an internal temperature of 140°. Remove from oven and allow to sit covered for 20 to 30 minutes before carving!
Cooking instructions for outdoor cooking:
This can be done on a grill over indirect heat or in a water smoker or other type of cooker, again over indirect heat or “low & slow” type cooking. Do not tent over ham if done on grill, water smoker or other cooker; this would prevent smoke from penetrating the ham.
Place water soaked chunks of mesquite, hickory or pecan (we prefer the smoke of pecan over all the others) on coals 5 minutes before putting ham on cooker. This will allow the ham to obtain maximum smoke flavor during the second cook cycle. ( the first cook cycle is the cycle the processor uses.) If even more smoke flavor is desired, place ham in freezer for 1 to 1 ½ hours prior to cooking to allow outer edges of ham to start to freeze. Go easy on this procedure; you don’t want the ham frozen hard!
Maintain temperature of cooker/grill at 225° to 275° during cook cycle.
If using a water smoker, fill water pan ¾ full with hot water and add 2 cups of orange, pineapple, or orange/pineapple mix, sweetened grapefruit or apple juice to the water. (all of them act as tenderizer as the steam penetrates the meat.) (I use a ¾ full drip pan when cooking on the Eggs, filled with a 50:50 mix of water and orange juice.)
Again, cook for 25 to 30 minutes per lb. until internal temp on the ham shows 140°. A couple of books suggest 145° and 160° respectively. Shirley O. Corriher in her book “CookWise” suggests 140°. We found this to be exactly right. After removing from the Egg, it will climb up to 145° internally. The ham will retain it moistness and the flavor will go thru out the ham this way.
Baste ham with glazing sauce every 10 to 15 minutes during the last hour of cooking time. Glazing compound will burn, so do not start glazing the ham until the internal temp of the ham reaches 120°.
NOTE: The secret to this process is plenty of smoke and the real maple syrup and granular coffee crystals in the glazing sauce. Use a cheaper cut of ham like mentioned before, and people will think you bought an expensive ham that you had to “hock” your kids for! Yuk! Yuk! (see my pun there?) The glazing sauce will give the ham a fantastic taste, smell and color!
Enjoy!!! El Chefo Dave (aka: Dr. Chicken)
Note: Use an injectable marinade such as Tony Chachere’s Pecan-Honey-Praline in the ham just before cooking to “explode” the flavor of the ham. Be sure to use it @ the recommended rate of 2 fl. Ozs. per pound. It really does take that much to do the job right!
Dr. Chicken’s Sweet Kiss of Death Injectable Marinade
First off, let me give a little background into the idea behind this injectable marinade and the reasoning behind it.
Years ago, my Grandma and my Mom both cooked such delightfully good hams at Christmas time; it would make your head swim in delight. The aroma would make our house smell good for days!
Tender, sweet, moist (most of the time) and just plain scrumptious, it was a memory like all of us have. I always wanted to duplicate the recipe. But, by the time I got around to asking my Mom about it, she was nearly bed ridden and had trouble remembering yesterday much less 40 to 50 years ago. Mom passed away 2 years ago last Valentines Day in 2000. But, I’ve continued to search and work at that memorable cooked ham.
Five years ago, I took a challenge from my oldest brother to duplicate that recipe in an outdoor cooker. He said, “It can’t be done!” Any of you that have tried my “Dr. Chicken’s Double Smoked Ham” recipe knows that remark was not true then and is not true now!
But, in all honesty, even the double smoked ham recipe left something to be desired. Sometimes it left the ham tasting great, but a little too dry. I believe it was Earl or Sprinter or GFW from the BGE user’s forum that suggested I use an injectable marinade in the ham, such as Cajun Injector’s or Tony Chachere’s Honey-Pecan-Praline marinades. Believe me, they both did a great job, but neither of them added the “punch” like I wanted. So, I have kept on trying.
Well folks, I think I have come up with what I wanted. Either recipe is a winner, but using them both on the same ham will result in by far the most fantastic tasting ham you will ever try.
Please give both recipes a try! You will love the results! I hope too, it will become a “family tradition” like my Mom’s and my Grandma’s was in our family.
Ingredients:
1 Cup of Good clean water (if your city or well water has an offensive taste, please use bottled water)
1 Cup of light Karo syrup (make sure it is light Karo brand syrup)
1/8 Cup of Amaretto liqueur (use the real stuff it makes a difference)
2 TBS of Watkins brand Butter Pecan extract (this is the only Butter-Pecan extract I could find)
1 TBS of Rum extract (again, I used Watkins because of the better taste than store bought)
1 tsp (this should be ¼ tsp) of Orange extract (this compliments the orange juice concentrate used in the glaze or basting sauce)
1 to 2 TBS Vanilla extract (again, I used Watkins because of taste after the first run)
Directions for blending:
Into a medium size sauce pan add the water, Karo syrup and Amaretto. Stir frequently and heat very slowly to avoid scorching the sugars in the syrup.
Then, add all the remaining ingredients and continue to stir and heat slowly. When the mix looks uniform in color and smooth, remove mix from the stove and allow it to cool to almost room temperature.
Directions for use:
Wrap ham in 2 layers of plastic wrap before starting the injection process.
Using a marinade hypodermic syringe, inject at least 2 fluid ozs. Per pound of meat in a grid pattern through out the entire ham and don’t be afraid to use up to 3 ounces per pound of meat.
Continue to inject the marinade into the ham until the entire amount of marinade is injected evenly into the ham.
Cook the ham as shown in the “Double Smoked Ham” recipe. Be sure to you your favorite wood for smoke flavoring.
Do not cook the ham beyond 145° internal to prevent over cooking and drying out the ham.
Enjoy this recipe and let me know what you think!
Cheers,
Dr. Chicken (aka: Dave Spence)
