Smoked Holiday Ham

Smoked ham and beans -- Is that a slice of bacon, too?

Ham is traditional for Easter, so I smoked a ham and baked beans today. For the ham I followed the procedure detailed on howtobbqright.com, with a minor tweak: I used a spiral cut ham to start with. Mainly because I'm lazy and wanted to make it easier to serve when the ham was done.

There are a couple of risks using a spiral cut rather than an uncut ham. The first is that it might fall apart during the smoking process. The second is that it might come out too dry when it's done. Fortunately neither of these happened today. You do have to be careful moving the ham on and off the smoker grate. The bottom slices will tend to peel off.

The basic ingredients

The first thing you do with the ham is throw away the glaze packet that come with it. You'll make your own soon enough. To prepare the ham, rub it with honey dijon mustard and lightly coat it with brown sugar. Then it goes in a 225° smoker for two hours. I used applewood chunks with some random mesquite and hickory thrown in. After two hours spritz it with pineapple juice, wrap it in foil, and continue to cook it for another hour.

After two hours in the smoker

After the third hour open the foil and put more brown sugar on the ham  and spray with more pineapple juice. This will make the glaze. Cook for another hour. After a total of four hours cooking time take it out and let it rest for about thirty minutes.

For the beans I used the recipe for barbecues beans I found at BBQ Recipes Cookbook. Again, I made a couple of minor tweaks I'll explain in a moment. I started with drained Bush's Original Baked Beans as the base. Then I added Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce, paprika, and dry mustard.

Tweak #1: The recipe calls for honey but I substituted brown sugar today (I'm out of honey -- an oversite). 

Tweak #2: It also calls for onion and green pepper. Instead of adding them raw I sauteed them in olive oil first to soften them up. I should have cooked the pepper a little longer since it was still a bit too crunchy when the beans were done.

Beans, done.

Finally I topped the mixture with bacon slices and it went in the smoker for about an hour and a half, uncovered. I wanted the beans to be ready when the ham was done resting, so I put them in the smoker after it had been cooking for three hours. And I added more wood to make them smoky.

Is that the face of Jesus in the center of the ham?

The ham practically fell apart when it was done. I have no idea how those sweet potato chunks got in the picture.

Surf and Turf, Part Deux

I do like my surf and turf. This week instead of lobster I grilled black tiger shrimp to go with the rib-eye.

I used the Grilled Prawns in Garlic and Chile Oil recipe from Fish & Shellfish, Grilled & Smoked.

Basically you infuse olive oil with crushed red peppers and garlic, then use it to baste the shrimp while they cook and as a dipping sauce afterwards.

While tiger shrimp are an invasive species in the Gulf of Mexico, the ones I used were imported from southeast Asia.

What salt to use, when

Do you use table salt, kosher salt, or sea salt? What about pickling salt or pretzel salt? Do you know the difference?

The Virtual Weber Bullet has a good post on the various types of salt and when to use them. They advise against using iodized salt because some people claim it causes an off taste. So much for when it rains, it pours.

Two tips I think are very useful: Don't use fancy or gourmet salts (like sea salt) for BBQ rubs. Sea salt is best as a finishing seasoning.

Second, not all salt is equal, literally:

"Table salt weighs about 10 ounces per cup, while kosher salt weighs 5-8 ounces per cup, depending on the brand. If using kosher salt in a brine, you must use more than a cup to achieve the same salt flavor you would get from a cup of table salt."

One cup of table salt = 1.5 cups Morton Kosher Salt = 2 cups Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt.

This means if you want to use kosher salt in a recipe that calls for regular salt, you need to adjust the quantity based on weight not volume. If the recipe specifies kosher salt then use the exact amount.

All About Salt via Lifehacker.

Surf and Turf

After my close encounter with the Unknown Spider, I grilled a couple of lobster tails and a rib-eye.

The steak was pretty straightforward. A little canola oil and then Golden Toad's Prime Steak Rub on both sides and it was ready for the grill. I won that rub, along with a selection of Golden Toad's sauces, in one of BBQ Sauce Reviews' Friday giveaways.

I used Steven Raichlen's Grilled Lobster with Basil Butter recipe from The Barbecue! Bible for the tails. This is pretty easy to prepare. Melted butter, coarsely chopped basil, salt, pepper, and lime juice is all it takes. You grill the lobster about 7 minutes per side. When you grill lobster the shell becomes very brittle so be careful when you handle it.

An excellent end to the weekend.

What Kind of Spider is This?

This fellow was sitting on the deck when I went out this afternoon to grill. He has really cool markings on the back. I think he might be an orb spider but I'm not sure.

Underside of spider.

I think he's camera shy.

UPDATED 4/2/12: It's a furrow orb weaver spider.

Pappy's BBQ Sauce!

A friend recently went to St. Louis. he visited Pappy's Smokehouse and really liked the ribs and sauces. Since he knows how much I like BBQ he brought back one of each of their sauces for me.

Pappy's Sweet Baby Jane BBQ Sauce is named in honor of the owner's granddaughter. This one Annie is  really wanting to try.

Holly's Hot Sauce is a Texas style hot sauce.

Pappy's Original is a classic tangy sauce with a pepper kick.

I haven't had a chance to try these yet, but I am looking forward to the tasting!

IED Chili

Today was wet and chilly. I didn't feel like firing up the grill or smoker so I made a batch of my award winning IED Chili. Yes, I said award winning. This recipe won first place in a company chili cook-off. And yes, those are beans you see in there, three different kinds in fact. I don't want to hear anything from you no-bean chili purists. I cook for taste, not abstract ideals.

Start to finish it takes about five hours but it's worth every minute of it. And it gives me a chance to bring out my ginormous cast iron Dutch oven.

I start out with three pounds of pink slime, er, ground beef and brown it in the pot. Then I add in some chopped onion and peppers (usually jalapeno and serrano peppers) and cook them until they're soft. Then in goes my special chili spice mixture, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, green chilies,  a bottle of beer, and a few other things. Then I cover it and let it cook for three to four hours.

I add beans the last hour (in this case red kidney beans, black beans, and pinto beans). I take the lid off for the last half hour or so to let it cook down a bit.

This chili is great hot out of the pot but it tastes even better the next day.