Ham in a hole

[Hainer]

Has anybody tried coming a ham in a hole?
I camp every long weekend with a fairly large group, about 6 family's.
Every long weekend I cook some large amount of meat of some sort and this is the first request for ham?
I have been wanting to try cooking in the ground.
Any pointers like cooking time, how deep?

[johny]

I can't even say what shows up when you google "ham hole"

But are you asking about roasting an entire animal over a pit of wood coals in a deep ground pit?
I've been a peripheral participant for a huge pig at our university graduation.
That took 8-10 hours to slowly rotate and cook. Several additions of dry wood needed during the day.

More involved with a small sheep on the beach in Grand Cayman.
Started with a 2-3 foot deep hole.
Just a wood fire but with local trees.
In Canada I would suggest the same woods you would smoke with. Maple, alder, apple. Oak might be OK. Absolutely no conifers.
Make a huge pile of wood. It'll collapse once it burns. You want to cook over a deep bed of coals. That is when you pt the meat over it.

Fire it up in the morning and once a hot bed of coals is established you can put the meat over it on a sturdy metal spit.
Hard woods like maple will last a lot longer than soft woods. If it looks like it dying out, thrown on some new wood. It'll burn but presumably you have a piece of meat with skin on, so harsh smoke directly on meat will not be an issue.

In Cayman, we used a magnum sized bundle of parsley and rosemary lashed to a long branch to dip into melted butter and brush the exterior surface of the sheep every 20 minutes or so.
Honestly, cooked meat is cooked meat no matter how you do it. But cooked in it's own skin over a deep bed of coal is fun for a big group. It is probably juicier because it won't dry out.
A really important part is the side dishes, sauces and a lot of cold wine, beers and coolers.

Seen an offshoot process in Hawaii.
Bed of hot coals-- animal thrown directly in--then covered with stones and dirt and left to "simmer in ground" for hours.
Tasty but looked like you needed to know your timing precisely and a bit too much hassle to get it back out of ground again.


This is an all day affair.

[Hainer]

I have roasted several pigs, turkeys large qty's of beef on my spit. I was thinking of digging out a hole and cooking the ham (18 - 20 lbs.) in it.

Just never done it that way before.
I like the parsley and rosemary used as a brush!

[TurkeyRookie]

It escapes me now, but someone on the forum did this last year, if not the year before. Try doing a search for it.

[Hainer]

I did search but all I found was doing it in a dutch over in the ground.
I was a boy scout when I was little, I'm sure I can figure something out!
I will post results and method. if all else fails there's always hotdogs!

[TurkeyRookie]

Ah sorry, maybe that was it.

The 21st century boy scouts use google I'm sure someone on there has done it.

[Doug]

http://bbq.about.com/od/barbecuehelp/a/aa061006a.htm

[madmike]

I can't even say what shows up when you google "ham hole".

LMAO!!!!!

Mike