Galician Cured Pork Shoulder with Turnip Greens (Lacón con Grelos)
Galicia's Carnival feast: a whole salt-cured pork foreleg soaked for two days, boiled until it falls from the bone, and served with chorizo, potatoes and turnip greens cooked in the same broth.
Edited by JP Lambiase
Change the estimate
Swaps change the price only: cook any meat to its own safe temperature. Where these numbers come from
Spain's famous ham, jamón (serrano or ibérico), is never cooked: it is dry-cured for months and sliced raw, and USDA FSIS files "Serrano ham, dry Italian or Spanish type" with prosciutto as a ready-to-eat product safe because so little water is left in it (Ham and Food Safety). The Spanish ham dish that families actually cook is lacón. Spain's trade agency describes Lacón Gallego, a protected geographical indication, as the foreleg of a Galician-raised white pig, salted about one day per kilo, washed, rested at least 7 days and dried at least 15, at least 30 days in all and never smoked, weighing 3 to 5.5 kg. Galicia's tourism board says Entroido, its Carnival, is a feast of pork cured after the November slaughter, with lacón served with potatoes, turnip greens (grelos), chickpeas or chicken, and that Cuntis holds a Festa do Lacón con Grelos on the Sunday after Carnival (February 13, 2026:). Like a Virginia country ham, it has to be soaked before it is cooked.
Why it works the kitchen science
Soak, then a two-day boil
The long cold soak draws salt from the outside of the dense, dried meat, and two rounds of gentle simmering soften the collagen in the foreleg until it falls from the bone.
One broth for everything
Cooking the potatoes and greens in the pork broth seasons them from the inside and softens the turnip greens' bitterness.
🧰 You'll need 4 items
Everything the steps call for. Tick off what you have before you start.
Pans and pots
Tools
Step by step
- Step 1
Desalt the lacón: submerge it in cold water in a large container and refrigerate 24 to 48 hours, changing the water about every 8 hours. Use the shorter time if it is sold lightly salted.
- Step 2
Rinse the lacón in lukewarm water and set it in a large pot (at least 12 quarts). Cover with fresh water, bring to a boil and simmer gently 1 hour, then test it with a fork.
- Step 3
Turn off the heat and let it cool in the broth about 1 hour, then refrigerate the pot overnight.
- Step 4
Next day, bring the pot back to a simmer and cook 2 hours more, until a fork slides in easily and the meat pulls away from the bone (far above the 145°F minimum). Taste the broth: add a pinch of salt if it is bland, or hot water if it is too salty.
✓ What it should look like - Step 5
Add the chorizos and simmer 20 minutes. Ladle about 3 quarts of the broth into a second pot.
- Step 6
In the second pot, simmer the potatoes 20 minutes, add the greens and cook 15 to 25 minutes more, until both are tender. Drain the greens very well.
- Step 7
Serve the lacón hot, whole or sliced, with the chorizo on one platter, and the greens heaped in the center of a second platter with the potatoes around them.
Galician Cured Pork Shoulder with Turnip Greens (Lacón con Grelos)
Serves 10 · one 6 1/2 lb lacón with potatoes, greens and chorizo · 4 hr 20 min total
Lacón
- 1 whole lacón (cured pork foreleg, about 6 1/2 lb), or a cured, unsmoked bone-in pork shoulder from a Spanish market
- Cold water, for soaking and cooking
To cook in the broth
- 3 Spanish-style cooking chorizos (about 9 oz)
- 2 1/4 lb small waxy potatoes, peeled
- 1 large bunch grelos (turnip greens with their stems and buds), about 1 lb, washed and trimmed; or collard greens
To serve
- Coarse salt, smoked paprika and olive oil (optional)
Equipment: Large pot, Chef's knife and cutting board, Measuring cups and spoons, Ladle
Method
- Desalt the lacón: submerge it in cold water in a large container and refrigerate 24 to 48 hours, changing the water about every 8 hours. Use the shorter time if it is sold lightly salted.
- Rinse the lacón in lukewarm water and set it in a large pot (at least 12 quarts). Cover with fresh water, bring to a boil and simmer gently 1 hour, then test it with a fork.
- Turn off the heat and let it cool in the broth about 1 hour, then refrigerate the pot overnight.
- Next day, bring the pot back to a simmer and cook 2 hours more, until a fork slides in easily and the meat pulls away from the bone (far above the 145°F minimum). Taste the broth: add a pinch of salt if it is bland, or hot water if it is too salty.
- Add the chorizos and simmer 20 minutes. Ladle about 3 quarts of the broth into a second pot.
- In the second pot, simmer the potatoes 20 minutes, add the greens and cook 15 to 25 minutes more, until both are tender. Drain the greens very well.
- Serve the lacón hot, whole or sliced, with the chorizo on one platter, and the greens heaped in the center of a second platter with the potatoes around them.
Adapted from Spain's official tourism site, spain.info, "Lacón con grelos" (serves 6), as written for the cooking order. Spain.info has no desalting step; ours (24 to 48 hours in cold water, changed every 8 hours) follows Directo al Paladar, and El Español's Cocinillas says an overnight soak is enough for a lacón sold "en su punto de sal". Spain.info leaves the lacón overnight in its cooking water; we cool and refrigerate it in the broth. The 3 kg weight, the vegetable timings and the 10 servings (FSIS's bone-in guide; spain.info says 6) are ours. Spain.info (Turespaña). Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Spain.info's tip: serve the leftover broth as a first course, simmered with large noodles.
- If you cannot find grelos, Galicia's tourism board suggests collard greens, turnip greens or cabbage.
- Lacón is sold in Spanish and Portuguese markets; a cured but unsmoked picnic shoulder is the closest US stand-in.
- Leftover meat keeps 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Jamón is cooked like American ham. Documented that it is not: dry-cured Spanish ham is eaten raw, and FSIS lists Serrano as a ready-to-eat, dry Spanish-type ham.
- How long to desalt. Disputed: Directo al Paladar soaks 48 hours, changing the water every 8 hours; El Español says one night is enough for a lacón "en su punto de sal" and a couple of days otherwise; spain.info gives no soak.
- Lacón con grelos is a Carnival dish. Documented (Turismo de Galicia: Entroido, the Cuntis festival). Okdiario also ties it to Christmas Eve (search summary only).
- Lacón is never smoked. Documented for the PGI rules (Foods and Wines from Spain); other cured shoulders can be.
- Grelos are parsnip tops. Folklore of translation: spain.info's English page says "parsnip tops", but grelos are turnip greens (Turismo de Galicia).
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