I read several of the buckboard bacon posts back in November and decided that I wanted to try it, so I went to a business in Spokane where I get all of my sausage mixes and brines. (I’m new, so didn’t know if I could name the place or not.) Anyway, they had a honey buckboard bacon kit and right next to it was a honey ham kit. I decided that I would make our family Christmas ham from scratch. I bought both kits and went to find some meat. Nearly everyone carries pork butts for the bacon, but I couldn’t find a leg for the ham. After running around town I found one 16 pounds that was boneless and reasonably priced.
I fixed the buckboard bacon the same as the earlier posts except I also poured a pound of honey in the cure and turned the meat every other day for 10 days.
The ham needs wet brine and also needed to be injected with the brine since the meat was about 8 inches thick. I tied the ham up with string to form it and soaked it in a small cooler in the brine for 7 days. I rinsed it good and then smoked it using an alder and apple mix. It took about 11 hours to get the internal temp to 135-140. This was 3 days before Christmas so I left it in a roaster in the fridge. On the 24th I got it out and injected it with a pineapple/brown sugar mixture about every square inch and added a dry rub of brown sugar and paprika (called for cloves, but I’m not fond of them). Then on Christmas I cooked it as you would a precooked ham. During the last hour added baste of honey and brown sugar (melted like simple syrup) every 15 minutes. The last 15 minutes I increased the temp to 425 to brown. Anyway, it turned out great. Very tender with a great flavor, no one got sick and I was the hero of family dinner. Here are some pics.
