ham hock and pig hock bargain food!

mummyjane

I would make a big batch of pea and ham soup, yummy.

meritaten

resi wrote: »

got a pork shank the other day and made soup - no soaking. then yesterday got a gammon shank - look the same but do I need soaking? bit confused.

would be great if someone could tell me if they are any different!
thanks, R

not entirely sure what you mean resi? do you mean do you need to soak the gammon shank in cold water for a time? if so then I can assure you that I have never done this - not for a boiling joint. and even for roasting joints I just boil them up, chuck the first water away, boil again and simmer for most of the cooking time - only then do I roast them in the oven as I think that roasting them for the WHOLE cooking time makes them 'dry'.

zippychick

my favourite is lentil soup- i made pea and ham soup a few months ago and thought it was gross:o! ive never had it before though. very bleh.

foxgloves

Bought a ham hock from local deli for £2.60. Cooked it in the slow cooker with a bit of water & a bayleaf. Removed all the fat then served up chunks of the ham with home made chive sauce, new potatoes & peas. Saved the liquid it cooked in. Next day, I put the bones back in the slow cooker with the jellified cooking liquid (skimmed the solid fat off first), water & a few slices of leek tops & carrot to make stock. Divided up the remaining ham. Used some of it in a pasta bake with chopped red onions, peppers, peas & a bit of cheese. Of the rest of the ham, some went into partner's work sandwiches with some mustard & some went in the freezer for the topping next time I make a pizza. The last littlest bits went into a ham & split pea soup which I made from the ham stock & that made 4 portions for the freezer. So for my £2.60, I will have got a total of 11 portions. That's got to be worth doing again next time I go past that deli & there's a pile of hocks in the window!

vgstar44

Thats amazing!!! well worth the money.

Wish i could find deals like that but i always seem to miss them.

My deal of the day was a 14 pack of cheesy wotsits for 99p that go out of date on the 18th June. Junk food i know but hubby and kids will use them for packed lunches.

not a patch on your super savign tho :-)

dandy-candy

Fantastic! Funnily enough I bought a little double pack of hock ham from Waitrose the other day and put half into a Tartiflette - it was super yummy

foxgloves

Even in the more upmarket farm shops, I've never paid more than £2.60 for a ham hock. I think that having to take all the fat/rind off & the fact that the position of the bone means you can't carve it into slices, probably means that it's a cut people perhaps tend to avoid. The flavour of the ham is great though. If butchers sell pork, I bet they have them but may not put them out. I've only once seen them in a supermarket & that was the Co-op last year, when they were actually less than £2 each.
P.S vgstar.....you don't know how much you've made me fancy a bag of Wotsits! (good job I haven't got your 14-bag bargain multi-buy or my diet would be in trouble!!)

anguk

I used to buy a ham hock every week but the prices at the butcher seem to have shot up. Yet another cheap food that's too expensive now. I also used to regularly buy a roll of lamb breast for a couple of pounds for stews and broth in the winter but I was gobsmaked when I saw a small piece the other day for a fiver! :eek:

1sttimer_2

That was a good bargain indeed!

Last time I tried anything like that was when I got a chicken at a throw out price at ASDA. Cooked the chicken, made the Sunday lunch, put remainder in fridge to make sandwiches/quiche, then put the carcass into a pan with onion, carrotts etc, boiled them down to make a stock, ..........then proceeded to drain the water down the sink - leaving me with a collander full of chicken bones and overcooked vegetables:eek:

Funnily enough, my sister did the same thing too! (must run in the family!)

bramble1

Ham hock is going on my shopping list this week