Picnic hams were a Sunday dinner staple when I was a boy. How well I remember coming home from church to a home filled with the aroma of picnic ham in the oven. I loved picnic hams, and I dearly loved the leftovers as sandwiches.
Picnichams, however, have lost favor with American cooks and shoppers. Rather than picnics, it’s Boston butts, whole pork tenderloins or chops.
Recently, the BBQ bug bit me. I went to Food Lion for a Boston butt, and they didn’t have any. Rather, they had whole and half picnic hams, so I bought a smaller whole ham for about ten bucks.
Picnic hams are a specialized cut of pork which include the upper part of the front leg and bottom part of the pork shoulder. The meat is always tender and juicy.
The next morning, I put Mr. Ham in a casserole dish, skin side up, coated it in salt and pepper, covered it tightly with foil and slid it into a 275 oven for about 8 hours. It was falling-apart tender when I uncovered the beast and poured off and removed the fat. The fat from a picnic larger comes from the top skin, not fat inside the meat, like a butt. So, it’s healthier and the meat is of a higher quality than a butt. It made spectacular BBQ when I shredded the meat and doused it with Scott’s BBQ sauce. Next time you are in a porky mood, try a picnic instead of a loin or a butt.
