Pork Leg smoking

[warston]

in 5 days i will finish curing my pork leg of 4 KG for the first time in my life, thanks to the moderators over this site who helped me A LOT and grate appreciation goes to Phil who kept in touch with me step by step answering my questions ..

i just want to know how can i smoke the Ham i have after the curing , i mean:

which kind of wood recommended ?
how many hours i have to keep it ?
i don't have smoke house, then i have BBQ stand and can put the meat far from the fire vertically like 1/2 meter, will that BBQ stand do the job or not ?
what i have to apply on the meat before smoking it ?

Roger

[Oddwookiee]

Wood type is completely personal preference. I use a hardwood chip blend for consistency, but anything that's non-resinous will work. Pork takes wood flavor fairly well, so a fruit wood would be very tasty- apple, pear, pecan, peach, anything of that sort. Be careful if you use mesquite or chaparral though, both can oversmoke and get bitter easily.

As for hours 'keeping' it, I'll assume you mean how long under smoke. Again, this is a personal preference in how strong you want the smoke flavor. I smoke hams to a nice medium-dark caramel color and that gives a strong smoke flavor without going over the top. However, once color is achieved, I pound the heat to it and raise it to an internal temperature of 145F to finish cooking (149F if it's to be spiral sliced).

A BBQ with the meat straight above it worries me- that will be a challenge to keep the meat from cooking before you get your smoke. If you have access to a piece of metal, you can build a shield at an angle in teh BBQ to push the heat to one side, and 'hide' the meat in the lee of the angle. Try to have the heat on one side of the BBQ and the meat on the other so it's not straight above the heat. I'd run a remote thermometer from teh meat to outside the BBQ to make sure it doesn't overcook.

What to apply to the meat.....any-damn-thing you want! This is purely a flavor application. Dark brown sugar and honey are good for depth of flavor if you want to go sweet, misting with whiskey can give good results, an old-fashioned compound herb butter can be tasty, just a dry herb and chili spice rub, jerk seasoning, the sky is the limit. If it's yummy, pork makes it yummier. Go bananas.

Mmm....smoked banana pork leg.....

[warston]

hahahah thanks a lot wookiee
i can see that you were hungry much while answering my post
as i said i'm so new to BBQ , so i would like to have some specific ingredients weight to apply on the ham and how many hours for pork leg 4 kg to keep above the fire ?
i have banana wood like a sand here in the island im living in !!!
so thanks for this !

[warston]

any one get any idea about the Rubber wood ? is it ok ? it has nice smell