Madeira Picnic Ham

Name: Madeira Picnic Ham
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 6 h 10 min
Total time: 6 h 30 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: southern
Ingredients: 1 (5- to 6-pound) bone-in pork shoulder (picnic roast); 2 ½ cups kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal); 1 cup turbinado or Demerara sugar; ¼ cup freshly ground coarse black pepper; 4 ½ cups Madeira wine, divided; 1 cup orange juice; 1 cup turbinado or Demerara sugar; ¼ teaspoon ground cloves; ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon; ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg; 1 medium white or yellow onion; Whole cloves, for studding onion

By Michael W. Twitty

Updated Dec. 2, 2025

Madeira Picnic Ham — David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich.

Total Time: 6 ½ hours, plus 2 days’ brining
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours 10 minutes, plus 2 days’ brining
Rating: 5(14)
Comments: Read comments

Madeira ham is an elegant antebellum Southern ham recipe. This recipe, adapted from my book “Recipes From the American South” (Phaidon, 2025), is adapted for the modern kitchen. It reads like a pork roast, but it is worth the effort and a delicious alternative to country ham. Here we take notes from the culinary historian Nancy Carter Crump. I adapted her recipe years ago for my open-hearth demonstrations and to my tastes. When you serve this ham, slice it thin and pile it high for ham biscuits.

Featured in: The 14 Best Cookbooks of 2025

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Ingredients

Yield:8 servings

For the Cured Pork

1(5- to 6-pound) bone-in pork shoulder (picnic roast)
2½ cups kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
1cup turbinado or Demerara sugar
¼ cup freshly ground coarse black pepper

For Cooking and Glazing the Pork

4½ cups Madeira wine, divided
1cup orange juice
1cup turbinado or Demerara sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1medium white or yellow onion
Whole cloves, for studding onion

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Step 1
Cure the pork: Place the pork shoulder in a deep bowl and rub with the salt, sugar and pepper. Cover tightly and refrigerate for 2 days.
Step 2
Cook the pork: When ready to cook, soak the pork shoulder in water for 1 hour, then drain well. Bring a large pot of fresh water to a boil over high, then cook the picnic ham over medium-low heat for 1 hour.
Step 3
Drain the pork and transfer to a large Dutch oven. Set over medium heat, pour 3 cups of the Madeira wine over the pork and cook at a low boil for just under 1 hour.
Step 4
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Step 5
Prepare the glaze: In a medium saucepan, combine the remaining 1 ½ cups Madeira with the orange juice, turbinado sugar, ground cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved and the ingredients are well combined, about 15 minutes. Remove the Madeira glaze from the heat and let cool slightly.
Step 6
Pour half of the glaze over the pork, making sure to cover the entire surface. Stud the onion with cloves and place in the liquid. Cover the Dutch oven and transfer to the oven.
Step 7
Bake for 2½ hours, basting every 30 minutes with the remaining glaze. Uncover for the last 30 minutes of cooking to allow the surface to brown.
Step 8
Add more Madeira glaze and bake for an additional 10 minutes to allow the glaze to just barely set.
Step 9
Remove the “ham” from the oven and let it rest for at least 15 minutes before carving. (Leftover ham can be sliced and stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.)

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Ratings

5 out of 5

14 user ratings

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Comments

PJ_C1 month ago

Yes. And then there is the simmer in Madeira wine for flavour. Slow-boiling for a couple of hours is fairly standard procedure for a home-cured ham. You are dealing with several pounds of RAW pork at the beginning and turning it into a cooked 'picnic ham'. Have you 'taken the plunge' and tried the recipe?

Tim s1 month ago

@Maria Gomes potentially the 4.5 cups of Madeira that you put on the ham. But just a guess.

Karen R1 month ago

Yes, it does mean to boil the ham. This is done with salty cured hams, which are fairly hard, as a way to soften the meat and cook out some of the salt.

Thaler Pekar1 week ago

Incredible! Made with a 9.5 lb bone in pork shoulder. Difficult to mess up: oven was in use so I boiled the ham in the wine for almost 2 hours. Turned it in the large Le Cruset and it got a nice brown (no need to brown at end). Had less wine and less OJ so not much of a glaze but we didn't care, it was delicious and falling apart. People raved, said it was the best "ham" they ever had and they wouldn't call it "ham". Used leftover meat for sandwiches and chunks of fat to sauté kale the next day.

pandapanda3 weeks ago

I made it for Christmas dinner and everyone really enjoyed it! The flavor is nice and less intense than I imagined. We had a ton of leftover pork left over for lunches.

Stephen3 weeks ago

I made this almost exactly as written except that my picnic roast was 7 pounds and I used a little more madeira in the boiling step to come up the sides a little further and turned the roast periodically to give both sides equal time in the madeira. This was excellent. A real show piece. The texture of the pork was beautiful and the glaze created a tasty bark. This is a keeper!

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