Big Green Egg Double Smoked Ham with Fresh Pineapples and a Herb Honey Glaze

LOW AND SLOW!

The purpose of low and slow cooking and smoking is to allow meat to cook fully, but to avoid burning or drying out the meat in the process. Smoking adds flavor and depth to the meat itself during the cooking process.

Ham comes from the rear leg of the pig and is then salted and dried or smoked. In the 1940s, Harry Hoenselaar invented the spiral-slicing machine. It holds ham while an oscillating blade makes thin cuts into the meat around the bone. Now, precooked spiral ham is a heat-and-serve holiday classic.

BIG GREEN EGG DOUBLED SMOKED HAM

With Fresh Pineapples and a Herb Honey Glaze

How about some real comfort food? Baked ham is one of those beloved foods that works for any occasion—one bite brings you right back to childhood, when all you needed was some yummy, smoky goodness to feel that everything was right with the world.

Ham is already cooked when you purchase it, so all you need to do is decide on your favorite glaze and reheat it. The ease of making this nostalgic centerpiece dish is one of its finest attributes, especially when you smoke it in the Big Green Egg.

Low and slow-smoked meat offers a three-dimensional explosion of flavors. It could be connected to the fact that it’s elemental, and universal. As Korean-American-Southern chef Edward Lee writes in his cookbook, Smoke & Pickles, the appeal spans the continents. “Some say umami is the fifth [taste], in addition to salty, sweet, sour, and bitter,” Lee writes. “I say smoke is the sixth.” And then there are the leftovers...need we say more?

Ingredients

6–8 lb smoked ham fully cooked, spiral-sliced 20-ounce can pineapple rings in pineapple juice (juice reserved) or fresh pineapple sliced 6-ounce jar of maraschino cherries 1/3 cup pure honey ¼ cup yellow mustard 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground ginger Handful of whole cloves Toothpicks

Method

Set up the Big Green Egg for indirect cooking at 225°F or preheat oven to 325°F.

If frozen, make sure that the ham is completely thawed. In a medium-size bowl, combine the pineapple juice, brown sugar, mustard, honey, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. Stir to combine. Transfer into a saucepan. Bring the sauce to a boil over medium-high heat, and whisk. Lower heat and stir for about 1 to 2 minutes until the glaze is clear. Brush the glaze over the ham.

Place the ham on a roasting rack with a drip pan and bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Remove the ham and add the sliced pineapples and cherries using toothpicks. Baste with the remaining glaze and place it back in the EGG or oven for another 30 minutes, uncovered. Remove from the heat and serve.