Detailed recipe for a mouthwatering Southern-style baked picnic ham with photos. It’s not just for the holidays any longer. Using a simple recipe, we’re baking a delicious ham from a picnic of smoked pork shoulder. Your family will adore this anytime of the year because it is topped with a brown sugar glaze, sliced pineapple, and cloves, but the holidays are the perfect time to serve it.
When I was younger and still lived at home, a picnic ham was almost exclusively served for special occasions. When Mama was hosting the preacher and his family for Sunday dinner or perhaps when we had another special occasion to celebrate, we occasionally had one as well. The key is that we only occasionally experienced them.
When I was a child, even though we weren’t major farmers, we did raise a few pigs, chickens, and even a few goats. Mama would always can plenty of vegetables and other things for the chilly winter months, and we also had a sizable garden each year to feed the family. I grew up in poverty, as I’ve previously stated, but I didn’t realize it at the time. It wasn’t until years later that I began to pay attention to some of the stories of my older brother and sister that I really realized how difficult things were back then, but Mama could always come up with some sort of meal.
If the weather was cold enough, hog killing season began around Thanksgiving each year. This meant that compared to the rest of the year, we would eat a little bit more of those “expensive” cuts of pork. Every now and then, one of those pigs would end up on a homemade pit made especially for turning a pig into barbecue. Daddy would make his own sausage, start the curing process on some hams and pork side meat.
I’ve been attempting to gather some old photographs of my family from the era of “hog killing.” I’ve not had much success with it, but I know mama had some because I remember seeing them stuffed away somewhere. I haven’t seen her pictures in a long time because they ended up at my sister’s house, and my sister is no longer with us. Maybe one day though.
I’m excited to share the recipe for the Smoked Pork Picnic Shoulder with you here on Taste of Southern because I recently received one as a gift. This time of year, pork shoulders will likely be discounted, so keep an eye out for one. They were . This one’s label stated a price of 99 cents per pound, which was a reasonable amount these days for any type of pork. Even fat back sells for more money than that, but I’ll save that story for another time.
Any meal can benefit from having baked picnic ham as the main course, and any leftovers make excellent sandwiches for several days. I only need a few slices of white bread made in the Old Fashioned style and some Duke’s Mayonnaise to get going. Ready to give it a try yourself? OK then…. Let’s Get Cooking!.
Only a few ingredients are required to make this delicious Southern dish, baked picnic ham. Please be aware that the name of the product on this package is a Smoked Pork Shoulder Picnic. Although it has been smoked to add flavor, this dish must be fully cooked before serving.
I’m using a 13×9 pan that is 2 inches deep. Line the pan with some heavy duty aluminum foil to make cleanup easier. Additionally, the shoulder weighed just under 9 pounds, so this pan was more than adequate for baking it.
Just place the whole thing inside the pan. We will leave those juices in the pan because the label on this shoulder states that “Water Added” Simply cut a slit in the plastic wrap, remove it from the shoulder area, and throw it away. Of course, the wrapper typically includes directions for baking the shoulder, so you might want to refer to those.
You should also take away any additional packaging that might be attached. The bone’s tip was covered by padded material on this one. In the course of shipping and handling, this helps keep the bone from ripping the plastic wrap. Prior to baking the shoulder, carefully search for anything else. You might also occasionally find a package of a premade glaze.
The shoulder should also have some netting in the shape of cheesecloth. To help keep the shoulder’s shape together during the initial baking period, we’ll leave this on. I hope you can see it in this photo. For the photo, I tried to lift up a corner of the netting, but it’s a little difficult to see.
Place the skin and fat side of the shoulder up by turning it over. This image also provides a slightly better view of the netting that encircles the shoulder. Just center it in the pan.
Place a substantial piece of aluminum foil over the pan. Make sure to crimp it down all the way around the edges to seal it up well, but don’t wrap it up tightly. Place this on the middle rack of an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees.
NOTE: Verify the cooking instructions on the package of your pork shoulder. For each shoulder, the cooking time will be approximately 18 to 22 minutes per pound of weight, but as always, that will vary depending on your oven.
Let the picnic bake for roughly 3/4 of the required baking time. For me, that was about 2 hours. I didn’t alter it during the first two hours of baking, but we’ll take it out after it has baked for about three-quarters of an hour to prepare it for the remaining baking time.
Prepare the ingredients for the GLAZE that will be used to brush the picnic’s top after it has baked for about two hours, depending on its size. Start by adding the brown sugar to a small bowl.
Sliced pineapple can be opened, and the juice should be taken out in about 1/4 cup amounts. Brown sugar and mustard are combined with a small amount of the juice added at a time to create a slightly thick syrup. Stir it together well.
Carefully remove the picnic shoulder from the oven. Try not to spill the juices because it will be hot and has some. Get rid of the aluminum foil and place it on a towel or rack.
Remove the netting surrounding the pork shoulder using some kitchen shears or a sharp knife. It’s going to be hot so be very careful. Yes, it will likely get stuck in a few spots on the bottom. The netting easily separates from the topmost layer of skin, but occasionally becomes slightly sticky on the bottom. Just do your best but, remove ALL of the netting. You might need to use a knife to prevent the netting from ripping off a lot of meat, but you can manage it. Again, it’s HOT so use caution.
This part is even HOTTER. Take a razor-sharp knife and tuck it under the skin layer. If you have tongs, grab the skin with them and carefully cut the skin and fat from the meat portion. It will normally peel up pretty easily at this point. As you move along, trim the fat as much as you can.
Set the skin aside. Any attached meat pieces can be cut off and later used to season some vegetables. When I attempted to remove the netting from the bottom of the shoulder, the majority of the meat on the right was pulled away. Usually, the skin and fat come off fairly cleanly without removing much meat.
Remove any excess fat that might still be present at the top of the shoulder. Although it need not be perfect, you shouldn’t leave any significant amounts of fat on the meat.
Take a sharp knife and score across the shoulder. Each cut should only be half an inch deep, and spaced roughly one inch apart.
Score the meat again in the opposite direction. You could get really inventive here and shape the cuts so the scored areas resemble a diamond, but I wasn’t as pleased with the results this time. It’s pretty when you do that though.
This, in my opinion, serves more as decoration and the overall presentation than as flavor. Thus, you could do it or not, whichever you select. Place several whole cloves in one hand, then delicately press one whole clove into each of the scored sections. It’s a matter of preference, but some people prefer to place them at the intersection of the scored points.
According to what I’ve learned, using Whole Cloves has just one significant drawback. Before you slice it into pieces to serve it, you must return and take them out. Nobody wants to bite into a clove while they’re eating. Still, it’s gonna make it “purty. ” Go for it.
Pour about HALF of the Glaze mixture over the top once you have added all 400 cloves. If you’re more artistically inclined, you can brush it on; otherwise, just pour it on top. Okay, so it didn’t actually require 400 cloves, but it might have seemed that way. Smile.
Put one of the pineapple slices in the exact middle of the picnic. You’ll need some toothpicks to hold them in place. To hold it in place, I cut a toothpick in half and inserted two picks into each slice. Like the whole cloves, don’t push them in too far because you’ll have to take them out later. Toothpicks are for AFTER the meal…. not PART of the meal. You can thank me for that piece of advice later.
I came to the realization that I was out of cherries to put in the middle of each slice of pineapple at this point. Oh well, I should have gotten those, what was I thinking? Please forgive me. Some people stuff a bright red cherry into each pineapple slice’s hole. Of course, I think why bother with cherries if I have to take out the toothpicks in order to take out the pineapple slices, and if I have to take out the whole cloves in order to slice it. I’m a pretty ‘basic needs” kind of guy I think.
This time, DO NOT COVER the shoulder; simply return it to the oven to complete baking.
For the remainder of the cooking time, you should keep a close eye on the shoulder. Although you don’t want the pineapple slices to burn, you do want to make sure the shoulder is fully cooked. Do not press a meat thermometer up against the bone; instead, place it into the thickest part of the meat. I cooked it until the internal temperature reached just over 160 degrees.
The safe cooking temperature for pork has recently been lowered by the US Department of Agriculture to 145 degrees. In the past, it had reached a temperature of 160° for leaner cuts of pork. Nevertheless, for safety, ground pork with a higher fat content should still be cooked to 160 degrees. Click here to read more about it: United States Department of Agriculture
According to those recommendations, the meat should be rested for three minutes before carving and serving. That won’t be an issue with this one because taking out the toothpicks and Whole Cloves will take longer than that. Here, I’ve removed the Pineapple Slices. Save them for later serving by placing them on a small plate.
OK…. I SHOULD have removed the Whole Cloves at this point. Only, I didn’t think about it. However, I strongly advise that YOU remove them right away unless you think they’re really attractive and want your family or guests to see how much effort you put into making this picnic ham. Choice is yours.
You can choose to follow the next few steps in this picnic or not because I decided to add a little more Glaze. That would really depend on how much you enjoy your ham’s brown sugar coating. When you bite into the picnic shoulder, I find it to be absolutely delicious to get that tiny taste of sweetness along with the saltiness.
I haven’t mentioned it yet, but smoked picnic shoulders have a slight saltiness to them. Because of this, there is no salt added to this recipe. It has plenty already. It’s just related to the smoking and curing procedure.
If you decide to add a little more Glaze, which I believe will also enhance the presentation’s beauty, then dab some yellow mustard all over the shoulder’s top.
Sprinkle a generous amount of brown sugar over the mustard. You can get really creative by rubbing the sugar into the mustard or simply sprinkling it on top. Just evenly distribute it throughout the picnic. Put it back in the oven, uncovered, with the oven on BROIL, and bake it for an additional 10 minutes.
Now…doesn’t that look absolutely delicious. See what a difference adding a little more brown sugar and mustard and broiling it for an additional 10 minutes makes. You simply don’t want to allow the sugar to start burning. It would be unfortunate to make it this far only to burn the Glaze in the last 10 minutes. Once more, oven temperatures will fluctuate, so pay close attention to it during this time.
I know my photography skills need a lot of work and improvement, but just looking at this makes me hungry.
When your baked picnic ham is prepared for serving, I’ll give you a few more instructions on how to CARVE it. Of course, the meat has now rested for the required three minutes. OK, it’s actually had about 15 minutes by this time. Here is what I did when I needed to cut out a few slices for the presentation.
Cut down to the bone with a slightly angled knife beginning at the smaller end of the meat. We’re going to basically cut a V-shape in it.
Slice it once more, down to the bone, with the knife moved and angled in the opposite direction.
Make several angled slices of the desired thickness starting at the smaller end of the picnic ham, holding the meat with a fork as you go. Cut them down to the bone on each slice.
To release the slices from the bone, cut along the bottom of each slice and the top of the bone with the knife. Then, remove each slice and place on your serving platter.
PS: Don’t forget about the baked pineapple slices you have. It appears I may have forgotten to include them in the final serving. They’re too good not to enjoy them. Almost any vegetables you choose to serve pair well with this ham. If you have any leftover sandwiches, don’t forget to eat them the following day.
PSS: Once the bone has been cleaned, wrap it in foil and place it in the freezer. Use this “soup bone” to season your upcoming batch of soup. Waste not, want not right? Enjoy!!!.
PSSS: Those tiny black spots on top of each slice could possibly be Whole Cloves that were inadvertently left there. Perhaps I just reasoned that adding a slice or two of pineapple to the image would add some more color and make for a better presentation. It was still mighty good though. I about couldn’t stop eating on it. Just saying!.
Detailed recipe for a mouthwatering Southern-style baked picnic ham with photos. It’s not just for the holidays any longer. Using a simple recipe, we’re baking a delicious ham from a picnic of smoked pork shoulder. Your family will adore this at any time of the year because it is adorned with cloves, a brown sugar glaze, and, as an optional garnish, sliced pineapple. However, the holidays are the perfect time to serve it.
How to Make Brown Sugar Glazed Baked Picnic Ham
To bake this incredibly juicy picnic ham with crispy charred edges and a mouthwatering glaze, just follow these easy steps!
Brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey are a few essential components for the ideal baked ham glaze. With this recipe, I opted for brown sugar and maple syrup, and the combination of the salty ham and the sweet glaze is literally heavenly. Adding honey or substituting it is an option. Along with the garlic, salted butter, cloves, cinnamon, and yellow mustard, I also used For me, the mustard gives the ham just the right amount of “tang” without being too overpowering.
My best advice with this one is to make sure you don’t keep the glaze simmering for too long. You can use whatever spices you like really, but this mixture always works best for me. If not, it will cool into a hard caramel, making it extremely difficult to spread on the ham when glazing. It’s best to quickly turn off the heat after a brief simmer.
What Side Dishes Work Best With Baked Ham?
The BEST buttery garlic mashed potatoes and roasted garlic parmesan Brussels sprouts are two crowd-pleasing side dish options I like to go with, but if you want something a little lighter, you could also choose a salad and some dinner rolls on the side.
I usually buy a larger ham than I need because there is nothing like using the ham bone in soup and the ham meat to make one meal last for 3 or 4—hell, if you are feeling particularly daring, try my ham and kale lasagna!—or use your leftover ham in recipes like my split pea soup using the ham bone, ham and noodle casserole, or my ham and mushroom crustless quiche for a great breakfast the next day.
Why do they call it picnic ham?
I once believed that the reason picnic ham was given that name was because it was perfect for picnics. And I really wasnt far off. Picnic shoulder/ham is regarded as a good cut for casual dining, such as a picnic, rather than for use at a formal event because it is a cheap substitute for real ham (which only comes from the hind legs).
I don’t exactly consider Easter a formal affair at my house (or anyone’s house I would eat Easter dinner at anyway), but I can tell you that this ham is definitely formal affair worthy.
Yes they are, but you still have to cook them. Picnic hams are smoked and technically fully cooked. However, they require additional cooking rather than just reheating because they have more fat than the leaner, pre-cooked hams we typically purchase.