Hocks & hooves

[AndrewTRSmith]

Hey everyone,

My local butcher always has hocks & hooves available and i'm wondering what the heck i could do with them. They are nice and cheap so i don't mind experimenting but is there much usable meat on them?

Thanks
Andrew

[Trev]

Andrew, I'm not sure about hooves, but pork hocks are dynamite smoked and used in split pea soup, to name one applications. Early this year I smoked some hocks (and bacon). Here are a few pics. They are great in soups, stews and many other places, too. If they're brined that's even better. --> http://www.bbqtalk.ca/forums/viewtopic. ... cks#p23613
Hocks do have a pretty good amount of meat on them, but also quite a bit of fat, skin and bone as well.
I think they're a real comfort food and I've liked them since I was a kid living on the farm.

[Peter]

Right on, Trev. Hocks are great food. They are the base for the "ragout de pattes de cochon" that is so well known among Acadians. They make one of the richest stocks I have ever used and smoked first even makes them better.

Hooves, I'm not so sure about either.

[SmokeHound]

Hey there Andrew....

I can't say much about the hooves... but I can tell you several uses for the hocks (you've already heard about the split pea soup....). Cook the hocks with a pound or two of Great Northern beans (along with onions, garlic, and other aromatics) in a large crock pot for 8-12 hours.... That's a fine dish!

Also, I recently made a KILLER batch of homemade baked beans using ham hocks... They came out way better than I expected them to. I smoked the hocks for 2 hours first, then just dumped them in the pot with the beans and the sauce.

Navy bean soup!

Have fun with those!

SH

[Iamarealbigdog]

Roasted smoked pork hocks from the Blue Moon just outside of Kitchener...



To die for

[stevo]

K people now I'm hungry and I just finished my grilled pizza

[doogster]

I would doubt there'd much, if anything, useful from a hoof, it's basically a huge toenail. I have a nursing degree, I also have a biology degree, primary focus of study in animal anatomy. Cows, Pigs, Horses (hey you can eat horse meat if you so desire) are unguligrade, ungulates, they walk on their points (the very tips of their toes). 3 digits are vestigial, 2 develop into the hoof we all know. This is all to increase the efficiency of walking. All the muscles for the lower leg are in the upper leg, all the muscles for the foot are in the lower leg (hock) since there's no fine movement of the digits I'd guess there's next to no muscle in the foot. In a person the muscles in the hand work the fingers. The muscles in the forearm work the hand, that would be far meatier.

Oh, this could lead to a segue. I little shot at PETA. They had an article about how it's cruel to declaw a cat (written by a vet, who evidently doesn't understand anatomy) because they walk on their points. To quote this site: B.S. Cats (and dogs, woof) are digitigrade. Like YOU walking on tip toes, as opposed to a ballerina on points.

[kevinv]

Hocks are good to cook. The only thing I have ever seen hooves used for is dog chew treats.

[doogster]

Hocks do sound good, I got to try some.