Dr Pepper Ham - Whiskey Style

My wife bought a big 19.5 pound ham for me to smoke for Easter. Of all the things I have smoked over the years, I have never smoked a ham. Luckily I know where to find out how, The Brethren did not let me down. I read several posts about what to inject with, what to glaze, how much smoke, how long, ect. Let me digress, my wife called me last Wednesday and asked if I wanted her to order a "Dr Pepper Ham" from the butcher for Easter. She said she had tasted a sample and it was very good. Baahhhh! I ain't paying 50.00 for a ham that someone else smoked. NO WAY! So she bought a ham and I agreed to make it a Dr Pepper ham. There are a couple recipes on the net about Dr Pepper ham glaze so I atleast had a starting point. After reading the instructions for Dr. Chicken's Double smoked ham I was ready to start concocting. Here is what I came up with:

Injector Recipe
1 cup of Aunt Jamima Butter flavor syrup
1 cup Dr. Pepper
1/4 cup bourbon
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Glaze Recipe
1 cup of Dr. Pepper
1.5 cups of light brown sugar
1/2 cup Orange Juice
1/2 cup Bourbon
1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
6-8 whole cloves
2-3 stick of cinnamon
Bring to a boil and simmer till thickened to a syrupy consistency.

Here it is at 130 degrees.

Boy was this good! It really turned out better than I expected.

This ham was a grocery store ham. It was a cheap bone in "smoked" "ready-to-cook" ham from Wal-mart. It was the only non-spiral ham that wally world had left on Saturday afternoon. I am way to lazy to cure a green ham myself. As good as this one turned out, I doubt I would ever attempt to cure one myself. Just for an idea of the cost, the ham weighed 19.5 pounds and cost 23.00 bucks. I don't think I would change anything for the next one.

FYI, I cooked this pretty low. I probably averaged well below 225. The wind was blowing today and the wind was cold. I had to work to get to 225. It took right 8 hours and I pulled it at 140 internal. The outside was not dried out. The inside was super juicy. When carving after the rest period the meat was so moist and tender. Thanks to everyone for all the good tips posted on here.

Give this one a try.

Norcoredneck said:

When I inject I do it in the sealed wrap and inject down. I let it set in fridge. Have done pinapple juice and JD. Gonna give your Dr Pepper recipe a try.

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I did the same thing. I left the wrapper on and inject it all over. Then I slid the injector between the plastic and meat and add the remainder of the of the marinade. Then it sat overnight.

To the top for Christmas! I have made this ham 4 more times and I am happy with the recipe. I am making one tonight for the office Christmas party tomorrow.