I decided to mix things up for Thanksgiving this year. I’d smoked a turkey for several years running, but this time I went with a Sam’s brand Honey Baked Ham instead — $16 for a ham close to 9 pounds, a good price for the size.

Most store hams like this are already fully cooked, so the “smoke” here is really about adding flavor and bringing it up to temp, not cooking it from raw. I used apple wood, a lighter smoke wood that fits well with ham, placed it in a pan, and targeted a temp under 250°F.

 Since we still had a turkey going in the oven at the same time, I aimed for a 3-hour smoke on the ham to match the turkey’s timing, so everything would be ready together.

 At the one-hour mark, the ham was running at 240°F and already starting to pick up some color.

  

Glazing

Throughout the smoke, I spritzed with apple juice to keep it from drying out. The ham came with a sugar/seasoning glaze packet that offered two prep options: the traditional method of mixing it with water and pouring it over the ham, or using the pan drippings to moisten the ham and sprinkling the packet directly on top. I went with the drippings-and-sprinkle method.

 

 Result

Total time in the smoke came to 3 hours. The sprinkle method didn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped, given the temp I was cooking at — but overall, it turned out great and gave the ham a real boost of smoked flavor on top of what was already there.