Thanksgiving in June
Smoking Some Bear Hams
For the past week my wife, daughter, and I were struck down by COVID. It took us a bit by surprise as our week started out normal with all of our planned activities of mushroom hunting, hiking, and brining a bear ham for our week’s meat were going perfectly… Then one-by-one, like dominos, we all fell. Anyhoo— COVID sucks. Thankfully, we all survived and are slowly on the mend and getting our energy levels back to baseline.
During our struggles, though, I did decide to attempt to make smoked ham out of about thirty pounds worth of black bear meat that I had in the freezer. So, without further adieu, here is the process (shamelessly stolen from the MeatEater cookbook) of taking a wild game quarter and turning it into a delicious cured ham:
PREP THE BRINE: In a four gallon cauldron I brought a whole-heck-of-a-lot of ingredients to a boil. The concoction called for brown sugar, salt, juniper berries, mustard seed, bay leaves, garlic, and black peppercorns — making a smell that was pretty dang rich. Once it was boiled and the salt and sugar dissolved, I let it cool over night.
PREP THE MEAT: As I was prepping the brine, I pulled the thigh and shoulder out of the freezer. Once mostly thawed I went about removing any excess fat from the meat, trying to expose as much of the deep-red colored meat as possible. I then took a long filet knife and stabbed the meat all over down to the bone… this was done to allow the brine to seep deep into the meat as I would not be able to inject it with a baster throughout the brining process. (Side bar: This step also saw the removal of a lot of hair… yes, when dealing with wild game meat you often still have hair that finds its way onto the sticky meat surface as you cape out your animal in the field)
Trimmed quarters in the brining tote. SET IT & FORGET IT: Once the brine was cooled and the meat prepped, I combined everything in a plastic tote. The goal was to make sure the meat was fully submerged so I ended up putting a heavy plate on top of one of the quarters to make sure it was below the liquid… Then, into the fridge it went for what turned out to be almost six days (thanks, COVID).
Ready to soak for several days. SMOKING: After six days of brining, I took each of the cuts out and washed them well under cold water, patted them dry, and put them on the smoker. For the smoke, I set my Traeger to 185 degrees and used mesquite pellets. They both ended up staying on the smoker for about eight hours at that temperature but the internal temp of each had only reached about 150 degrees… ten degrees shy of where I needed them to be to avoid any possibility of trichinosis. So, for the last hour I bumped the cook temperature up to 225 degrees in order to get the meat above 160 degrees internal temp. Once every probe on the meat was reading above 160 degrees we pulled them and let them rest.
On to the smoker for the day. 
After the first eight hours. CARVING: Once cooled down, we set about carving the hams just like you would any other thanksgiving treat… We cut thin slices which revealed a beautiful (in both scent and taste) lean meat that was oozing with juices proving the brining process was successful. We were able to fill several gallon sized bags full of meat to share with friends and family that can be enjoyed for the next few weeks (or longer if frozen).
First cut into one of the quarters, the smell was great! 
One of many platefuls of tender bear ham to be given to friends.
Overall curing and smoking a ham takes a lot of effort, but is one that yields a lot of flavorful protein. This recipe, too, is not only restricted to game meat… You could do this with a store bought ham as well!