Expert: Enrique Torres - 5/28/2009

Question
Hi.  we bought half a fully cooked ham (about 8 pounds) from the local grocery store, and my husband put it in our outdoor smoker to dry it somewhat and give it that good flavor.  He smoked it about 6 hours, and the outdoor temperature that day was about 60 degrees.  The inside smoker temperature was about 80 degrees.  We refrigerated the ham as soon as it was taken out of the smoker.  Question...Do we have to cook the ham to at least 160 degrees before eating it, or does the smoking preserve it, so we can actually eat it "as is"?  What is the rule on this?  Thank you.

Answer
GrannieB:

The product you bought is ready to eat without any additional cooking process, for that reason you can eat it without any problem.

Smoking process helped to increase shelf life and to increase taste, flavor and improved color and you can keep it refrigerated for more than 15 days.

You can eat it without heating or cooking but if you want to heat about 150F to prepare some sandwich,salads, snacks and to fill pies.



Here the rule is: eat without spend time cooking or heating.

Good luck and enjoy it,
Enrique