- [Brent] It's Monday morning at the shop.
We just got our pig delivery
and today, we're gonna make ham.
- Why are we makin' ham?
- It's the holiday season, Ben.
Get in the spirit. - It is the holiday season.
- Most people don't know what goes into making ham,
so here's a tutorial, 101,
we're making American style deli ham.
- But like what you wish Boar's Head was.
- Sorry, Boar's Head.
- So, we're gonna start with a half pig,
as you can see here.
Start from here, get down to our ham.
- Separate our loin from our ham.
Deli ham is great, you know.
Sometimes you want a ham sandwich with lots of mayonnaise.
In order to make the ham, we are going to debone it,
skin it, trim it, tie it, brine it.
- Let it sit for 10 days.
- [Brent] There we go.
- And then we're gonna smoke it
and then we're gonna eat it.
Then we're gonna eat some more
and if there's any leftover, we'll eat that, too.
That's 10 steps.
- With mayonnaise.
- Step one, take the skin off.
I'm gonna start reading off questions from the audience.
Has anyone ever told you
you look like Biff from Back to the Future?
- Wait, what?
- What?
That's certainly not in the comment section
of every video like five times.
Are you more of a Kris Kristofferson A Star is Born
or more of a Bradley Cooper A Star is Born.
- (bleep) man, I'm not ready to answer that question.
Both so emotional.
- Alright, we'll come back
to that one. - We'll come back to that one.
- Brent, if you were on a desert island and you had,
nevermind, that one was gonna get dark.
I'm gonna step away from that question.
Brent's trimming around the femur bone right now.
- Deboning it.
- That wasn't enough detail.
So, for doing a kind of quick cure which we're doing,
by quick cure, I mean it's still gonna take us 10 days.
It helps to break down the muscles a little bit more.
The salt and the sugars act as a good marinade
so it kinda creates a uniform texture in the overall ham.
- Alright, so I feel pretty decent about this.
We're gonna ask
our resident butcher and ham expert, Leah Wolfe,
to judge us on our ham.
(quiet clapping)
How are we looking?
- Looks pretty good.
You want to make sure that you're cleaning out
anything that's gonna be unpleasant
even after it's slow cooked.
One thing that I do see right off the bat
is this situation right here.
There's still like some big tendons.
I would say B minus right now.
- (bleep) man, I make one mistake and it's a B minus?
- Man, I'd be doing such a better job right now
if this was me.
We would've been brinin' by now.
Would've been smokin'.
- Alright, what do we think? - Cool, that looks
much better, much better.
Our new grade is B plus.
Just kidding, it's an A.
Good job, buddy.
- Would you mind helping us through the next few steps
so we can make (lips smacking)
the best ham possible? - Honored.
I would be honored. - Great.
Let's tie it!
- We're gonna load up our ham netting
onto the end of this chute
and then we're roll our ham, put it in this way,
and we're gonna push it through.
I'm gonna be your ham doula today.
- I was about to say do we need
for it to have some breathing exercises prepared?
- Alright. - Nice.
So, I like to put it in the smaller end first.
I kinda like to hold it down here,
like a big comic book arm cannon.
- Gotcha. - The Meat Hook,
professionals since 2009.
- Alright. - Breathe, breathe, breathe.
Okay, Brent, this is your time
to shine. - It's coming!
This is your time to shine! - It's coming!
- [Leah] Foomp!
- (wailing) I'm never gonna look at you the same way again.
(loud laughter)
So, do we start saving for ham college now?
- Yeah, we should. - Yeah, you haven't already?
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, yes!
A for enthusiasm.
- How're we lookin'? - Good!
You look tired,
but the ham looks great. - No I'm not!
- [Leah] No, that looks perfect.
- [Ben] That's a really good looking ham.
- You can tie it this way, you can tie it with twine.
Ben, do you want to demonstrate a twine tie on this end?
- I would love to demonstrate it.
Is this how you do it, Leah, or is this just how I do it.
- I mean, you're really going for it, which I appreciate.
Beautiful. - Great, and just cut
the excess off. - Totally.
Very nice.
You two have created a beautiful ham together.
- We did it!
Next step is brining.
- So, do you want to hype up the brine.
- There's brown sugar in it. - That it's our secret blend.
- Okay, we take it, we filter the water through an ionized
fancy Brita filter. - Flux capacitor.
- Flux capacitor,
some cleansed crystals.
- It's sugar and salt. - It's sugar.
- It's sugar
and salt and water. - And salt and water.
- We're gonna use our brine pump.
- [Ben] That's what you gave me a flu shot with last week.
- Shut up, you're fine.
I think that an industrial plant would have
called a ham tumbler, like a washing machine.
Take ham and inject it full of brine.
- Reason why we do this
is so that you're getting that flavor,
that saltiness, that sweetness,
in every single part of the ham.
- Let's flip it over and now get at all these
muscle groups that are underneath.
This is the stage where it really starts to shoot brine.
It's nice and full.
There it is!
- [Brent] What do you think?
- [Leah] This looks really nice.
Oh, yes, very firm.
- [Brent] Oh, that really is like really nice!
- Nice. - Cool!
- So good job!
Slow, but good, the Brent story.
(laughing)
- (bleep), man!
- Let's bag it. - Seal it.
- Throw it on a shelf and forget about it for 10 days.
- Back up quick to retrieve it.
- Back up, (humming).
- [Leah] This is a big ham.
- So, we sucked all the air out of the package
so the only thing touching the ham is the brine.
- And all those holes that we poked
are now filled with that brine.
- Okay, let's throw this in a bin
and then we have some hams that we can actually smoke today
so we can go ahead and throw those in the smoker.
(electronic music)
So, we're out in the backyard now.
This guy has been brining for 10 days,
so let's load it up and start smokin', man.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Get it through.
Let it get pretty smokey.
Takes about, about eight-ish hours
and then we're gonna eat it.
We should go buy some mayo.
- I'm a mustard guy.
- No you're not, no you're not.
You're from Pittsburgh!
You're like (bleep) 50% mayonnaise!
- I'm only 50% mayonnaise when it comes to salads.
If you're making a salad that involves mayonnaise--
- Okay, so I'm gonna make you a ham salad.
- Now we're talkin'. - There we go.
Brent's got his murderin' glove on now, so,
hams must be ready.
That ham looks ready for mayoin'!
- Yeah, that'll work.
Alright, so this ham has been brined,
it's been smoked, it's been cooled,
and we're gonna slice into it.
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
- You can see how moist it is
just from the glistening of it.
That's gonna be a really, really, really nice ham.
Alright, let's make some sandwiches.
What does Brent like on his sandwich?
- [Brent] Goin' ham, cheddar, mustard.
- I'm gonna do mayonnaise, pickle, American cheese,
and a little bit of hot sauce.
Oh, I feel good about this.
I'm gonna eat this sandwich and just fall asleep somewhere.
Yeah, yeah!
- Now that's how ya ham!
- In case you didn't know what to do
with ham once you had it,
put it on bread.
Put some pickles on it!
Put some mayo on it!
Put it in your mouth!