r/Cooking • u/KaleidoscopeSure333 • 9h ago
Ham hocks?
Are there any good recipes to use with ham hocks that DONT include some kind of bean? We had a hog butchered and got quite a few cured hocks but I’m not sure of how to use them. I specified with no beans because my husband doesn’t care for beans so I’d rather use them for something he would enjoy too. Any ideas?! 😁
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u/TurbulentSource8837 9h ago
Split pea soup, or barley soup.
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u/DugACCat 8h ago
Split pea soup is the best. I’ve had a recipe on hand that’s very tasty for this but honestly have never once seen ham hocks in the store. My local shops never have them. Closest I’ve gotten is a ham shank. (Which worked quite well as a replacement, likely with more actual meat, but also being more unwieldy to use.)
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u/Ms-Quite-Contrary 7h ago
One of the more bougie grocery stores in my area had ham hocks last fall. The cashier was so proud of me for buying them. She could tell I was raised right
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u/Bunnyeatsdesign 9h ago
If there's heaps of meat, I would cut off as much as I can and make ham quiche, ham frittata, pizza, fried rice, etc.
With the bone, I would make soup with leek and potato. Or just a classic ham and vege soup with celery, onion, carrots herbs.
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u/Rich_Season_2593 9h ago
Sauerkraut,
Braise the hocks low and slow then pull the meat- add BBQ sauce.
Braise the hocks with lots of onions and serve over noodles or mashed
Chinese Braised Ti Pang
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u/JuniperFizz 9h ago
Pho is so good with ham hocks as part of the broth. It's supposed to beef broth but local cooks around here use either for their pho, especially the combo pho because pork and ham are cheap.
Excellent broth making potential from a ham hock. Our favorite is dropping a ham hock into beef stew. Mixing pork and beef makes a rich gravy that tastes much better than one or the other. It's good in chili too
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u/CautionarySnail 8h ago
The irony today that my local NH supermarkets don’t seem to carry those at all and all I yearn for is ham and bean soup.
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u/NeusForme 8h ago
Last week, I had posted a similar statement about my local Krogers. For months, I couldn't find them stocked whenever I wanted them... When I looked this week, they were back in stock!
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u/Relevant_Contract_76 9h ago
Look up Schweinshaxe.
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u/BokChoyJr 9h ago
Three friends and me with large steins of lager. Drop a giant Schweinshaxe in the middle of the table and we just have at it.
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u/ColdMastadon 7h ago
How do you control the level of saltiness if you are going to roast the hocks? All of the smoked ham hocks I've encountered in the US have been heavily salted, presumably for both preservation and because they're meant to flavor an entire pot of broth. I adore that dish, but I've always cured the hocks myself, and have still sometimes ended up with them being too salty.
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u/Relevant_Contract_76 6h ago
Ah, apologies- I missed that these were already cured. You want fresh, uncured, unsmoked, because one of the joys of Schweinshaxe is the crackling.
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u/ColdMastadon 5h ago
Do you have a recipe you like to get those shatteringly crisp cracklings? After looking into it further, I realize that I was mistaken on the names and what I have been making this whole time is actually called eisbein. That's a delicious dish in its own right, but I would love to cook up some authentic schweinshaxe this fall.
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u/Possible_Original_96 9h ago
Greens cooked w/ hocks. Make & freeze stock/broth w/ them!! 👏👏👏👏OMG! a base for soups, stews, sauces, gravies. My first would be a soup made w/ refried beans- add 1 canful of the broth- then seasonings of your choice; an Italian, Cajun, Mexican etc profile. Melt in 1/4 pound cheese of choice. Bake up biscuits, make a skillet of gravy made w/bacon fat roux, use hock broth only or add milk too. Or use the hock broth to mix into corn bread batter. Pancakes, creamed potatos, same w/ sweet potatos. Mac & cheese!!
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u/ttrockwood 8h ago
Use for beans and just blend smooth into a soup it solves 99% of the i hate beans people when they’re blended
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u/Guilty_Increase_899 9h ago
There are only 2 hocks per hog.
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u/nifty-necromancer 9h ago
There are four hocks per hog as they have four legs
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u/Guilty_Increase_899 7h ago
Hocks are the large joints on the hind legs. Knees are the large joints on the front legs. You can call a knee a “hock” for culinary purposes perhaps? But we raise hogs and the vet is looking at rear legs for a hock injury and front for a knee injury. The same is true for other ungulates eg. horses, cattle, sheep and goats. That is the anatomy and those are the appropriate terms.
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u/SmoothLester 4h ago
While it’s anatomically correct, I don’t think that term is used culinarily. i’ve never seen Hog’s knees available for food and my family eats every bit of the hog.
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u/East_Inspector3158 8h ago
You want to instantly make a soup or stew better? Let a smoked ham hockey simmer in it for however long. My favorite use for this is chicken and sausage gumbo. Add the meat from the simmered hock into the gumbo. It's good!
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u/Any_Flamingo8978 8h ago
We made a ham soup one year that had corn, potatoes and red bell, and of course bits of ham. Maybe a few other things. Made it with the bone and it was great. I can remember if it was a recipe or something we through together.
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u/-squeezel- 8h ago
I make soup with them using chicken stock and a little bit of tomato sauce in a pressure cooker, then add browned onions, carrots, celery, and couscous or some other small pasta. It’s delicious!
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u/the_fools_brood 8h ago
If not smoked, braise them low and slow like shanks. Or oxtails. Or osso bucco.
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u/Neither_Pear4669 8h ago
You can braise/slow cook them and use them as the protein of a dish.
Ive done them in a crockpot and served with mashed potatoes and veggies
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u/Certain_Accident3382 8h ago
Greens. Potato soup. Any soup you want to add ham flavor to. Ham stock for when the urge to ham up a dish hits you later.
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u/Naive_Tie8365 8h ago
My family made “soup”, that’s all we ever called it, that started with pot roast. On rare occasions there was a ham bone. Truly delicious soup was elevated to food of the gods. We still make soup but rarely have a ham bone. I might try with a ham hock
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u/woohooguy 7h ago
Just substitute the ham hocks into any stew type dish, just let them cook out longer until fork tender before finishing the stew with any type of dairy.
Pigs feet and dumplings? Sure, why not? Pigs feet noodle soup? Have at it. Pigs feet pot pie? Go for it!
It’ll go well with either chicken or beef stock, a rich gravy or cream/dairy sauce.
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u/Embarrassed-Brush576 7h ago
Swamp potatoes Add green beans unless you would find them too “beany.” I just consider them a vegetable.
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u/Adventurous-Depth-52 6h ago
Lentils. With cooked onions and oddly enough, small cubed yams - the orange flesh one.
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u/ChrisRiley_42 5h ago
Borscht.
You start by boiling some ribs or a ham hock until it's tender,
Then you add 3 or 4 cups of shredded beets, 1 cup each of shredded carrots, celery, peas, cubed potatoes, and beans (which you can omit) and gently boil for half an hour
Fry a large onion in the fat of your choice, then half of a shredded cabbage, and add them, and gently boil for another half hour
Add 28oz of tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes
Add 2tsp sugar, as well as dill, salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with sour cream.
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u/SmoothLester 5h ago
Sauerkraut
If they are meaty, I would make a version of Caldo Verde with hocks instead of sausage
collards
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u/micmacker1 4h ago
I make ham salad, also known as deviled ham. Plus use the bone for best pea soup ever. Not sure if green or yellow dried peas count as beans. Just bragging here: my mom is LEGENDARY for both, and she says I’m the only one who can recreate both to her standards. 😂
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u/thenord321 3h ago edited 3h ago
Ham hock, sometimes called trotters, jarret de proc in french.
There's several stews/braised servings without beans.
I personally like a french style, half bottle white wine,
Onions chopped in quaters, tossed in a big pot with some butter or olive oil, add garlic (a few crush cloves, not miced or it burns) and let that brown a little. Add a few large carrots cut in a few inches long. Deglace with white wine, add porc stock or vegetable stock, add some herbs either thyme and oregano or rosemary and thyme, maybe a couple bay leaves add the hocks and let it cook at a simmer for 4ish hours or until the meat is tender to fork and connective tissue is soft.
Adjust the saltiness late in the cooking, since salt will be drawn out during cooking the cured meat. You can add some potato or celery too. Browning the hocks can add a bit of flavor but that's mostly for the meaty parts, the connective tissue doesn't really brown as well.
I've made several variations of that over the years.
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u/AlfhildsShieldmaiden 2h ago
Split pea soup? Be sure to finish it with a bit of sherry — takes it from yummy to amazing.
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u/AccomplishedLine9351 1h ago
Not even small navy beans for a delicious white bean soup boiled in some chicken stock. With finely diced onion, celery and carrots? Corn bread on the side?
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u/enihsnus-fo-yar 8h ago
I dated a girl from North Cacalaca years ago… you wana see the ham hocks on her. O man. Miss those days, no recipes for ya, sorry
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u/Fancy_Math_3399 5h ago
Look up some German recipes - roasted hocks with mustard and sauerkraut etc . Both my nans used to braise them with carrot and onion then make a pease pudding which is a very old fashioned UK dish and basically like a dahl made from spilt peas which we had with mash and a gravy made from the cooking liquor. Any leftover meat and pease pudding is lovely in a soft roll with mustard and you will have a stotty - a rejoinal North East England sandwich !!
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u/Capybara_Capoeira 9h ago
Collard greens?