Easy Holiday Ham Recipe

by Nicholas Fiorentino

This recipe takes your favorite roast cut of pork and turns it into an Easy Holiday Ham Recipe. This works best with a pork cut that does best with long and slow cooking, anything from pork shoulder to the leg, or in this case, the Coppa Roast. This recipe needs a little bit of math and one special piece of equipment, but the end result leaves you with the ability to turn just about any favorite cut of pork into ham.

Now, if you looked at the timing og this recipe, you probably noticed that there are an estimated 1140 minutes of grill time. This is cooking time, but you aren’t doing most of that cooking. Once the meat is in the water bath, you can walk away for nearly a whole day.

PREP TIME

15 Min

COOK TIME

1140 Min

YIELD

DIFFICULTY

Easy

Ingredients

1 Pork Coppa Roast
Brown sugar
Kosher salt
Your favorite pork rub
Sous vide cooker
1 cup (235 ml) pork drippings
2 cups (400 g) brown sugar

Method

This cook depends a lot on the weight of your chosen roast. You will want 1.5% of the weight of your meat in salt and 3% of the weight of the meat in brown sugar, and 0.5% of seasoning.

My roast is 1140 g/ 2.5 lbs. This means I need 17.1 g (0.6 oz/1.25 tbsp.) of salt, 34.2 g (1.2 oz/2.5 tbsp.) of brown sugar, and 6g (0.25oz/0.5 tbsp) of seasoning.

Weigh the roast you plan on turning into a ham and measure out and mix the ingredients to flavor the ham.
Preheat your sous vide cooker (we’re using the Joule today) to 136°F (58°C).
Rub the pork coppa (your roast) thoroughly with the seasoning mixture and place it into a vacuum bag or ziplock. Remove as much air as possible from the bag before sealing it. Place the bag into the heated water bath and cover, allowing the meat to cook for 18 hours.
Once the time is up, remove the ham from the water bath. If you are not ready to cook and serve yet, leave the pork in the bag and allow it to rest while you prepare. If you are ready to cook and serve, remove a set of cooking grids and sear plate from the barbecue and place a smoker box or pipe over a burner. Fill the smoker box with lightly soaked wood chips and replace the cooking grid. Preheat your barbecue to 425°F (218°C) using the rear burner and ignite the bottom burner under the smoker box to low.
Place the meat onto a board and reserve the liquids that are in the bag. Prep the meat by scoring the fat cap if there is one. Then, slide it onto a rotisserie spit, making sure to balance and secure it well.
Measure out 1 cup of liquid from the bag and add 2 cups of brown sugar. On the side burner or on your stovetop, bring that brown sugar mixture to a boil until the sugar dissolves. That’s only for a minute or two, you want it to froth up a little, but not reduce too much because it will go hard as it cools. You are looking for a syrup.
Place the rotisserie with the pork onto the barbecue and place a pan below. You can put the last of the bagged juices in there to prevent the pan from burning. Turn on the rotisserie and baste your ham thoroughly with the brown sugar syrup.
Baste every 10 minutes or so, until the pork looks like a beautifully glazed ham.
Carefully remove the ham from the rotisserie and serve with your favorite springtime veggies. Drizzle with any remaining glaze and slice to serve.

Summary

While the time sounds intimidating, this is probably the easiest Holiday Ham Recipe you will ever have the pleasure of saying is homemade. Tender, succulent, the only thing this ham recipe doesn’t have is a long curing process. Treat your favorite family members to a delicious meal that is perfect for any holiday dinner with this easy recipe. What is your favorite holiday dinner recipe on the barbecue? Share your holiday menu, recipes, and photos on our social pages like Facebook and TikTok, using the hashtags #TheMeatery #NapoleonEats and #NapoleonGrill.