Twice Smoked Ham

Purchasing a smoked ham and reheating in the oven tastes great. Smoking a smoked ham tastes even better! This is a very simple process and includes a two-ingredient glaze.

I have a Traeger pellet-based electric smoker with hickory wood chips. As for the ham, the general rule of thumb is that the you'll have a great piece of meat when it has the least amount of fat. When picking your ham, choose one with less fat.

I'm also using an electric meat thermometer to ensure safe cooking temperatures.

The glaze consists of two ingredients:

• brown sugar
• dry mustard

Let the ham sit on the counter in its original packaging for about 20 minutes. Unwrap the ham and pat it dry.

I used a cookie sheet covered with tin foil to collect all the drippings.

Despite the comment about purchasing a ham with the least amount of fat, I still had to trim some fat from the meat. I also scored the meat in a criss-cross fashion.

Stick a meat thermometer into the center of the meaty part of the ham. Make sure that you're not putting the thermometer near the bone.

You're aiming for an internal temperature of 71C (160F). I set the smoker to 130C (265F) and left the ham to cook for two hours. At this time the internal temperature was 60C (140F) and it was time to prepare and apply the glaze.

In a bowl I added a bunch of brown sugar. How much you add is going to depend on how much ham you'll need to cover. I then added a bit of mustard. Add a SMALL amount of water and mix until you have a paste. Then taste and add more mustard until you're satisfied. The glaze is so simple that it would be impossible to have exact measurements that would satisfy everyone.

Apply the glaze to the ham while it is still in the smoker. Since this is sugar and the ham is hot, I added the glaze from the top and helped it down the sides of the ham as it melted.

I then turned the smoker to its "smoke" setting. This lowers the cooking temperature to about 107C (225F) but produces a lot more smoke than before. Cook for another two hours.

Take the ham out of the smoker and let it rest at room temperature for about 10-20 minutes. Collect the drippings so that it can be drizzled onto the cut ham when serving.

Serve the ham with your favourite sides like fresh green beans and scalloped potatoes.