Picnic Ham for a Connecticut Yankee in the South

Our local grocery stores are suddenly full of picnic hams! This Connecticut girl is thrilled! I grew up eating picnic hams. A New England boiled dinner of picnic ham, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots was the meal I made for my first "dinner party" in my tiny first apartment with the 6' x 3' kitchen!

A picnic ham is a pork shoulder, smoked to make it taste like ham. It may also be called a "daisy ham," but I remember that Daisy was the brand name of a boneless picnic ham roll available in the 1970s, though I haven't found confirmation of that memory yet.

So what did we do with picnic ham this week? We're getting multiple meals out of it. It may be a cheap piece of meat with a good deal of bone and fat to throw away, but it is inexpensive and flavorful and goes a long way.

Procedure:

1. Rinse off the picnic ham to remove any residual bone "saw dust."
2. Place in a covered roaster.
3. Pour in water to about 1 inch deep.
4. Cover and roast at 350°F for 25-30 minutes a pound.

That's all there is to it.

Meal #1: Freshly cut ham, warm from the oven, a frozen veggie.
Meal #2: Left over ham, nuked with red potatoes
Meat for meal #3: Awaiting its turn in the freezer
Meal #4 with enough left over for lunch: Pea soup