This year’s Christmas dinner consisted of Pulled Pork for us and Hams for our friends. There’s nothing wrong with a Turkey dinner with all the trimmings but this year I asked my Daughter-In-Law what she wanted and she immediately said “Pulled Pork” … No problem, right up my alley! Our friends wanted Hams for their family Christmas dinner and asked if I would be kind enough to smoke some … No problem!
Big problem … All I have to figure out is the logistics of it all considering that both are smoked/cooked at different temperatures and I only have one MAK 2 Star Wood Pellet BBQ Smoker-Grill.
Consulted my little black book database of cooks and chose to use my Turbo smoked Pulled Pork method first and while the Pork Butt is in FTC I can cook the Hickory Smoked Ready to Eat Shank Portion Hams. We planned on eating the Pulled Pork at 3 pm and I needed the Hams to be ready at 3 pm. After doing reverse math I chose to put the Pork Butts in at 6 am at 225ºF and the Hams in at 11 am at 325ºF.
Seasoned a 5 lb Pork Butt with Roasted Garlic EVOO for the glue and a liberal amount of Plowboys BBQ Bovine Bold. Wrapped the Pork Butt in plastic and refrigerated overnight. Preheated the MAK 2 Star to 225ºF using Pacific Pellet Apple BBQ Pellets. Inserted the Pork Butt at 6 am and Apple smoked at 225ºF for 2 hours before increasing the pit temperature to 375ºF. Pulled the Butts when the internal temperature reached 160ºF. Double wrapped in foil and returned the Pork Butt to the MAK 2 Star until the internal temperature reached 206ºF.
Into the MAK 2 Star at 6 am and out at 10:45 am. Time for a 4 hour FTC. Wrapped the double foiled Pork Butt in a Towel and into the Cooler. The Pulled Pork was scrumptious!! We just might have started a new tradition …
After I removed the Pork Butt I set the MAK 2 Star to a temperature of 325ºF and inserted the Hickory Smoked Ready to Eat Shank Portion Hams at 11 am. The directions for the Hams called for these 10 pound hams to be cooked 20-25 minute per pound until the internal temperature reaches 140ºF. Since these were “Fully Cooked” Hams there was no need to take them to any higher temperature. The Hams reached their 140ºF IT at 2:35 pm. I double wrapped the Shank Portion Hams in foil, a towel, and inserted them into a cooler. Our friends picked them up at 3 pm. Don’t you just love it when a plan works out like you intended it to?
These Hickory Smoked Ready to Eat Shank Portion Hams were priced at 99¢ per lb versus the $2 plus price per lb of other cuts of Ham. When using a pellet smoker-grill there’s no need to buy those high priced cuts. Everything tastes great when smoked/cooked with wood pellets!!
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