As in fresh cut ham. I have located 2 fresh cut 18 lb hams and am curious about deep frying them. All I have done is turkey and after several years of that would like to try something different. Anyone done this? Results?

It seems to me that while a (hollow) turkey will easily deep-fry throughout, a ham (which is essentially a solid "block" of meat) would be dried out/cremated at its surface, while the inner flesh remained uncooked.

A couple of years ago, i had something go horribly awry with a dinner where I was going to deep fry some whole chickens. In desperation, I cut a pork loin in half (so it would fit in the basket),injected it with marinate, rubbed spices on the out side and dropped it in the turkey fryer. It came out great, everyone thought I had planned it. Haven't tried it again but I have been contemplating it.

Well I decided I should try something smaller and less expensive first. Wife brought me a 8lb pork shoulder. I googled this idea and settled on Paula Deen's recipe. I brined it overnight. 3 gallons of peanut oil @ 375 degrees, 10 minutes per lb cook until 160 degrees internal. That's the recipe. OK here is my experience. As I lowered the shoulder there was no more hissing and popping than a turkey. After that it actually cooked rather quietly. Left it for an hour and checked it and it appeared to my grandson and I as a just landed meteorite or an 8lb chunk of charcoal. Internal temp was 135 so back in the oil. 10 minutes more and internal temp was 140. 10 minutes more and temp was 140 again. All the while it is getting blacker by the minute and much less appetizing. Everything else is ready and everyone was waiting. We decided to pull and take into the house. As my wife and the other grandchildren were gazing at our new found still smoking meteorite I could sense some disappointment. I looked at my wife and asked what was plan B? She reached in the fridge and pulled out some sliced ham and fried that up on the kitchen stove so we could at least eat lunch. As we were eating our substitute ham the lump of Asteroid fragment cooled and began to call my name. So after lunch I got the sharpest knife I had and went to work. The black crust was about 1/4" thick and inside was cooked well. The meat next to the bone was not done so I set it aside. After carving I cut all the black parts off. I put the uncooked parts in the oven @200 for one hour until the color was all the same and put it with the rest in the fridge. The following night we put it in a baking pan covered with foil and warmed @300 for 30 minutes. It turned out great. It was really moist and tasted like fried turkey! All of the kids ate their share. We all had a good laugh about it. Who ever knew inside an 8lb sold black smoking asteroid there would be 3lbs of turkey flavored ham. The moral of the story? I will not be doing fresh cut again.

Coulda saved your 8lb ham for you if I'd seen this earlier. My buddy tried this a few years back for our annual ball tournament piss-up. Was the same experience as what you just described.

Randy - a lower cooking temperature (I'll suggest 300 or 325) might have produce "better" results (instead of burned outside and raw inside). There would have been a longer cooking time, but the cooking would have been more even. This is just a guess though, because I've never tried it ~

Next time you have a hunk of pork shoulder (especially something with the skin on the outside, like the picnic (lower) cut), let me know. I've got something that is so good it will make a puppy pull a freight train.

As for the fresh hams...if you want to cure them and smoke them and need some instruction, let me know. I've got some information that I can send.

Ron

Tas, actually I will say I worried about that 375 temp. I have found on the Turkeys to bring the oil to 200 and then lower the bird and crank up the fire to 325. It is less noisy and abrupt. I start my cook timing when the oil hits 325. It leaves you with a lot less burn on the bird. I am thinking on the ham 300 and increase the time per lb. Also during my googling I found deep fried Spiral cut ham (precooked). Goes back to the 3.5 minutes per lb and all you are doing is heating it up and adding the flavor of the oil. Sure takes away the worry of the uncooked pork. I am 2 thousandths of an inch of calling Santa on his personal line and ordering a Big Green Egg. I will be in touch with you when my deer comes from the locker. going to do the shoulder roast first. Beast regards and Merry Christmas! RandyB.