The hock is the leg of the pig above the foot and below the ham/shoulder. When we had our pigs processed we always got the hocks back. We tried to sell them on to our customers but no one wanted them. Most said they didn’t know what to do with them.
We smoke the hocks. When I’m doing run of smoking I bring in trays of smoked hocks and set them in the kitchen to cool. By the time that I get back with the second tray my kids are already picking at the first tray.
This is one of our favorite recipes. It’s simple country food of barley, roasted pork bone broth, local carrots, and smoked hocks.
We started throwing one piece of smoked hock (they’re normally cut into three pieces) with each order we delivered and included this recipe.
It didn’t take long for the orders for smoked hocks to start coming in.
We don’t have a lot of collards in Canada but I would definitely eat that when I visit the south were it on offer. Smoked hocks are an amazing ingredient. You get the smoke, the marrow, gelatin from the skin, collagen from the tendons, and that lovely, tender pork. It brings the flavor and the thickening all at the same time.