Take one Pork Hock

A Pork hock is a relatively cheap way of providing meat for sandwiches during the week. Its something that my family have done for a lot of years. My Mum always did this for us and she always stored the hock in a dish with the stock poured over. It kept the meat better until it was all used up and then the jellied stock as it goes into a thick jelly was used for the basis of home made soups.

Mum still does this and my two nephews are both very keen on Gran's home done ham.

Ingredients

1 ham hock with or without trotter
1 carrot
onion
bay leaf
cloves (stud the onion with a couple)
black pepper
thyme

Traditionally before cooking the ham hock the ham hock has been soaked overnight in a bowl of cold water to remove as much salt as possible.

Then throw away the water put the ham hock into a fresh pan of water bring to the boil and then discard this water. Put into a fresh pan of water with the rest of ingredients and cook until the meat starts to fall off the bone. Decant into a bowl with the stock and leave to cool on a cold shelf in your larder if you have one or on a work top until the liquid has cooled and then put into the fridge. Slice and serve as required.