This recipe is one of my grandmother’s, it’s pretty basic – a smoked pork shoulder, carrots, potatoes and cabbage all cooked together in the same pot on top of the stove. Like last week’s tomato soup, this is another one of my cold weather stand-bys. I bake a few loaves of bread too, because the leftover meat makes the best sandwiches! Whatever you do – don’t toss the ham bone out because tomorrow we’ll be making soup – yep, those New Englanders are a thrifty bunch!!!!
- 1 – 6 to 8 pound smoked shoulder
- 4 pounds of large potatoes (I use Idahos), peeled and cut in half
- 2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut in half
- 1 head of cabbage, quartered
1. Rinse ham in cold water, place in a large stock pot. Fill pot with cold water covering the meat by a few inches. Cover and bring to a boil, turn heat down to medium – high and boil for an hour. (The rule of thumb is to cook a half hour for every pound of meat, my ham was close to 8 pounds, so I repeated the process 4 times.) Drain pot, and add fresh water, cover the pot, and bring to a boil.
2. After the third go-around, I poured the water used in cooking the ham into another pot. The stock pot I was using wasn’t big enough to cook the ham and the vegetables, so the broth I saved in the second pot was used to cook the carrots and potatoes.
3. The pot with the ham was filled with water for the fourth time, covered and put back on the stove. Cook the carrots and potatoes during the last 45 minutes of cooking time. I cooked the cabbage in the pot with the meat, which took about the same amount of time. It depends on the size of the cabbage you choose. Keep an eye on the vegetables, they should be tender but not over cooked.
4. Take the smoked shoulder out of the pot, carve, and place on a large platter. Slice the quartered cabbage into smaller pieces. With a slotted spoon, remove the carrots and potatoes and let them drain in a colander briefly, then arrange the vegetables around the meat.
