Over the course of the afternoon, we'll butcher a whole bone in ham (around 12-15 lbs!) and get it ready for the holidays. We'll practice deboning, skinning, and scoring. Whether you're familiar with these knife skills or not, we'll get them "honed up" before the end of the session. During butchery. we'll discuss the history of the American Christmas Ham, why this piece of the hog makes such a perfect roast, and other possibilities of muscles/muscles groups that are also suitable for such a treatment.

From there, we'll delve into the techniques of brining. To brine or not to brine? Pink salt or no pink salt? What is a nitrate and why might it be bad for me? Is it even possible to over brine? We'll work through these questions and more as we prepare a few different ham brines to highlight a variety of possible flavor profiles and then set our freshly butchered hams on brine.

Finally, we'll get to cooking techniques. As we pull two hams, one from the smoker and one from the oven, we'll compare and contrast the techniques and discuss the benefits and flaws of each. We'll cover cook times and temperatures, glazes and rubs, and common cooking mistakes.

Each participant will receive a brine kit before departing which includes all the materials you would need to brine your own ham at home in time for Christmas!