Incredibly simple, but delicious and particularly beautiful on the plate. I believe it is important to have the parsley sauce in a jug on the table so the eaters can express themselves with their pouring. When buying your ham, avoid pink things in hairnets; look for organic and free range if possible. It is always good to cook a bit more than you will eat so you can have cold ham.

As I mentioned in the Anthony Bourdain post, I’m not a stranger to brining. Ever since the first run of Alton Brown’s Romancing the Bird Good Eats episode, I’ve brined my Thanksgiving turkeys. I’ve also brined shrimp, chicken and pork to great results. After looking at Mr. Henderson’s brine recipe I was really excited to try it out something a little different. The first thing that struck me was the mention of saltpeter, even though it’s not used in the brining process. The second thing was the juniper berries. This was very similar to a recipe for a corned beef brine! I’m a big fan of any type of corned meat so this recipe jumped to the head of the line. It would have been the second update to the website except for one thing: the picnic ham I had bought would need to sit in the brine for at least 12 days. D’oh.

On top of that, finding juniper berries here in Austin was next to impossible. I can buy a whole pig’s head in the local grocery store, but I had to ask a friend who works at Whole Foods to raid the kitchen’s pantry for the berries, since the store itself was out and no other store carried them. I’ve since purchased a big container of them from Penzeys Spices.

Here is the pork shoulder, aka the picnic ham. Pretty and pink, covered in fat.

And here it is in the brine. Mr. Henderson has a quick blurb in the book about obtaining a brine bucket and making it a nurtured friend of the family. My wife has since named the 8 quart container, “Bertie” in an attempt to make it feel more at home. Bertie and the pork shoulder stayed in the fridge for fourteen days at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. A few pig ears were added about halfway through for another recipe.

A fortnight later, you can see how the pork shoulder has turned a bit gray and the water has turned pink. You can also just make out the pig ears up top.

Here is everything in the pot, ready to boil. The black spots on the onions are cloves that have been stuck into them.

A few hours later with the carrots added. The whole kitchen smelled like a fresh corned beef sandwich. It was intoxicating to say the least.

Halfway through the parsley sauce (without the parsley). I was happy that I actually knew that this sauce was really a Bechamel sauce with parsley added. Hooray for mother sauces!

The final product on the plate. My wife’s step-father and his girlfriend came over for dinner and the dish was a hit all around. There were quite a few comparisons to corned beef as I had predicted. The carrots were sweet thanks to being kept whole during the cooking. Surprisingly, the parsley sauce almost upstaged the ham. I suppose years of thinking of parsley as little more than garnish and a way to cleanse one’s breath had lulled me into low expectations of the sauce. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was light and peppery, playing well with the salty ham.

Ever since the leftovers were polished off, I’ve been thinking about making this again just to have some more. Actually, I’ve been thinking about making it again at least once a day. It’ll be a recurring dinner at my house for a good long while.

One down, one hundred and thirty four to go.