(no subject)

[unicornduke]

 Hi all, I'm alive, crafting hangout is on for wednesday, same time, same link. I had a bunch of requests for my side job, which is good! Extra money! But also extra work and I don't feel comfortable doing side job stuff when technically I am doing my regular job from home even if I have no actual work. So I spent about 8 hours sunday getting a rush job done. Serious money from that one. 

Question: I made broth with a ham hock and then picked the meat from the bones and set it aside. Wtf do you do with the bones and fat and stuff? 

When I did it with a chicken, the bones basically dissolved. That was easy. The pork bones seem fine, lots of connective tissue and some meat I couldn't separate from all the fatty stuff. 

Comments

[cepha]

Aren't bones what stock is made of? Check your cookbooks stock section.

[unicornduke]

I mean, ham hocks are mostly bone, very little meat and it made a very nice stock. I guess I could just keep making stock until the bones aren't really useful anymore.

[graydon]

You could try making erbswurst with the pork fat? was my first thought (it keeps nigh-forever), and then I found a recipe -- https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/german/value-erbswurst -- and you need some hard fat, too. (I think it might solve the Pemmican Problem and I'm inclined to give it a try. (the Pemmican Problem is that gluten-free etc. food for the bug-out bag is tough to get; authentic pemmican would be great but I cannot will it into existence.))

We always just used to put the ham bits in omelettes. Could presumably put it in biscuits or potato anything or rice. (A bit of meat and fat while it's cooking improves rice a lot.)

Ham bones are durable; boiling would have to be on the scale of "glue boiler" (pressure-cooker), and then you'd get portable soup. (there are fussy traditional crafters who use knox pure gelatine as glue but, well, it is, and it's the good stuff.) You might like the portable soup?

[unicornduke]

Hmmm. I've been eating the ham meat with everything and it's actually a more delicious version of ham, which is impressive considering how good the regular ham from this pig was. I think I'm just going to toss the bones/fat/etc into my instant pot and let it go to town on another batch of stock. I guess I'll see how much stuff I can get out of it.

[graydon]

That sounds entirely like a plan.

Don't know if you like pea soup but you'll be set up for a quantity.