When entertaining for the holidays, a ham is always a great choice to grill. It always looks amazing on the dinner table, and there is nothing like the weaving salty sweet intersection of the first bite.
I usually go for a grilled ham when I want a meal to please, but also want to spend time with my guests. Ham is a no fuss cook, which requires little intervention on the grill. However, before you get too far, remember, all hams are not created equal. Ham can be easy, but with a little extra work ahead of time, ham can be great.
Most often, the ham to hit your grill is already cured and cooked. While it’s super easy to pick these up, I like to take more control of the process, and make ham my own.
A fresh ham is really a fresh pork leg, or rather, the uncured rear leg of a hog. The process of dry curing (what I don’t do...yet...think: prosciutto) or wet curing/brine (what I do) turns the rear leg into a ham everyone recognizes. Without the cure, smoking a fresh leg yields what is in essence, a large pork roast. Good, but not ham in the true sense of the word.
While it takes over a week to brine a ham, the results are well worth the effort. Throw in a sweet glaze towards the end of the ham’s cook on your Weber, and the great results double.
Whether grilling a store bought cooked ham, or curing your own, ham is a fabulous choice when entertaining for friends and family. Oh, and one more bit of advice. Always buy big. What’s better than ham for dinner? Ham sandwiches the next day.
