In our home, we generally have Easter dinner a week early. This started a few years ago when we always got that free ham from the grocery store, but we would spend our Easter with the relatives. So the weekend before, we would have an Easter dinner with friends and family that would not be at our traditional Easter dinner.

The store usually lets you select from a few different types and I almost always get a smoked pork shoulder with the bone. The smoked flavor really makes it easy to flavor the dish in interesting ways.

Over the years, I have used a few different techniques and recipes, but by far this one works the best.

• 1 large smoked pork shoulder.
• 8 cloves of garlic.
• 2 1/3 large sprigs of fresh rosemary.
• 4-5 large fresh sage leaves.
• 2 tablespoons Olive oil.
• About 10 slices of Pancetta

In a small food processor, add the garlic, rosemary sprigs (not the stem) and the sage. Add the olive oil and chop/process until it makes a paste. One of those small electric choppers work great for this.

Salt and pepper the ham (go light on the salt). Rub the mixture all over the ham. Place the slices of pancetta all over the entire ham (except the bottom) using toothpicks to hold into place.

Now I normally will cook the ham for about 6-8 hours in my Crockpot BBQ Pit on low, but you could cook this in the oven using the directions on the package. This should be slow cooked in any event. When you use the Crockpot BBQ Pit, the chances of over cooking the ham is almost nil. The meat will be the most tender using this method. Of course, if you have a large Crockpot that can hold the ham, you could use that too, just add about 1/8 cup of water to the bottom of the Crockpot when you start.

After you remove the ham from the cooker, let stand for fifteen minutes to rest. Pull off the pancetta and use is as a lining on your serving platter. Slice the ham as thin as possible and serve immediately.