This double smoked ham ended up being one of the best things I’ve ever smoked.
Now I’m going to help you duplicate it.
Why Double Smoke the Ham?
This is the first ham I’ve ever smoked. I’m not sure why that’s the case. I love ham. I guess I was afraid it wouldn’t turn out well.
At first I read recipes for a raw ham and was told they never turn out as well as you would think. Smoking a raw ham will give you an end result very similar to a very lean pulled pork and I don’t want that.
So, instead of working with a raw ham you want to start with a ham that has already been cured and smoked. Most of the time these hams have already been fully cooked. You can eat them cold if you want but they are so much better when you heat them back up in your smoker and add extra flavor layers with the smoke and a sweet and savory glaze!
How to Double Smoke a Ham
This cook is a three step process that involves an initial smoke, loosely wrapping in foil and a finishing glaze. We are building up layers of flavor as we go!
The entire process will take between 3-5 hours depending upon the size of the ham.
The Initial Smoke Period
Take the ham out of its packaging and pat dry with paper towels.
Set your smoker to 225F and use apple wood for smoke. We are using a low temperature because we want the ham to have plenty of time in the smoker to build up flavor layers.
Apply a thin coating of glaze to the ham and sprinkle with brown sugar. I chose to use a homemade honey Dijon mustard glaze on mine. It didn’t add a strong taste, so don’t be afraid. It complemented the flavor of the ham well and provided a “glue” for the brown sugar. And I used a LOT of brown sugar.
If your ham is already spiral sliced then use your hands and press the glaze into the meat as much as possible. We are going LIGHT with the glaze at this point because we want the smoke to be able to get into the ham. Don’t worry, you will get the chance to add a lot more glaze later!
Place the ham into the smoker and let it cook for two hours.
Loosely Wrap in Foil
Briefly take the ham out of the smoker and place it on a large sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil.
Spritz the ham generously with pineapple juice and LOOSELY tent the ham in the foil.
Place the foiled ham back on the smoker and allow to cook for one more hour.
In this step we want the ham to gently steam in the pineapple juices while protecting the smoke and glaze layer that were built in the first step.
The Finishing Glaze
Open up the foil tent to expose the ham.
Apply a liberal coat of the glaze and smoke for 15 minutes.
Every 15 minutes or so apply a “touch up” of glaze and check the internal temperature. You want a final internal temperature of at least 145F but you can take the ham up to 150-160F if desired.
How to Serve the Ham
I added that same honey Dijon to the meat afterwards as you can see below. I also put it on my sandwich. But then again, I really love mustard and ham.
I ate it fresh when it was warm by itself, with mustard, warm on a sandwich, cold the next several days on a sandwich, and cut up in delicious omelets. It was magnificent in every way.
You’ll be thrilled with how tasty and delicious (and easy to make) a double smoked ham can be.
Double Smoked Ham with Honey Dijon Glaze
Ingredients
- 1 cured smoked ham (6-9 lbs)
- 1 c Honey Dijon Mustard
- Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 small can pineapple juice
- For homemade Honey Dijon Mustard
- 1/2 c yellow mustard
- 1/2 c honey
- 1/4 c Dijon/Spicy Brown Mustard
Instructions
- Remove your smoked and cured ham from the packaging and wipe off excess moisture with paper towel.
- Get smoker up to 225.
- Right before you put it on your smoker, spread on some of your homemade honey Dijon mustard and sprinkle with brown sugar.
- Smoke for 2 hours.
- Place on foil, spray all over with pineapple juice and loosely cover with foil. Smoke 1 hour.
- After an hour, you should be close to 140 internal temp. Once you're there, glaze.
- Glaze it by opening the foil, sprinkle more brown sugar, as heavy as you would like, and spray with juice again.
- Smoke another hour until internal temp is at least 145 and the glaze sets. Feel free to glaze more than once!
- Let rest for 20 minutes, cut and serve!
I’ve never cooked a ham before, could you explain how you glaze the ham, what ingredients you use? Thanks.
Hey Stu – the glaze recipe is inside this post. Check it out, it’s tasty. You can glaze with anything that sounds good. I choose sugars- Brown sugar, honey, syrup. Thick liquids work well for glaze.
Kevin, thanks for the reply. So step #6 is a repeat of #3? Sorry for my ignorance, but this recipe sounds awesome and I’d love to try it.
… that is a bit confusing, I’ll have to fix it. Step 3 is just spreading mustard and sprinkling sugar. Step 6 Is the mustard honey sugar glaze mixture.
…. but you could definitely do glaze on both steps if you want!
So step #6 is adding the honey Dijon mustard with brown sugar. Anything else? What’s the ratio you use?
A little mustard, some brown sugar, and spray with pineapple juice. Feel free to add layers of brown sugar and spray with pineapple juice. I don’t really have a ratio on sugar…I just sprinkle all over and spray all over!
Our guest count went up for Thanksgiving this year, and I knew if I didn’t add something there wouldn’t be enough fried turkey leftover! Your ham was the perfect addition, and everyone raved about it. Thank you for sharing your recipes!