Italian Picnic Shoulder

[Fla Gal]

The dinner I cooked yesterday evening was really good. The recipe I used is below. Below the recipe is my adaptation of what I cooked. I'll be cooking this again in the future. It's fairly easy and really good.

Italian Picnic Shoulder

An economy recipe from Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

1 whole 5-pound smoked picnic shoulder
6 to 8 cloves garlic
3/4 cup vinegar

Remove skin from picnic. Peel, slice garlic cloves in fourths lengthwise. Cut vertical slits about 1/2 deep in meat and insert garlic slices as you remove knife. Place in a big kettle, cover picnic with water, and add vinegar. cover; simmer about 3 hours (35 minutes per pound). Remove from broth. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.


I used an almost 4 pound unsmoked picnic shoulder, which I skinned. I used only 1/2 cup of (white) vinegar.

I followed the directions but did the following too. The last 20 minutes of cooking I added 5 medium carrots, sliced. The last 10 minutes of cooking I added 3 large ribs of celery, cut on a diagonal.

After the last 10 minutes of cooking (simmering) I drained the liquid from the pot, saved it, and put the picnic and veggies, uncovered, in the oven for about 15 minutes. The meat got a little browned, the carrots and celery weren't over cooked but weren't crunchy.

[meemo]

This is something I will definitely try. Sounds real good. With the garlic and vinegar its almost health food.

[Fla Gal]

Whadda ya mean almost??? Dad is on the Atkins diet and this is on the list. He's losing weight. He had to dig out his smaller pants that 'used' to fit him.

If you want to make it healthier, make some sweet taters slathered with honey to serve with it. Vinegar and honey is healthy. Yeah!