hock query

[andyb]

Hi,

I have brined four hocks in two seperate brines..one in the brine recipe from hugh fearnly thingys dvd and one using the brine mixture from francos site..

the ones coming from HFW's mix are shrunken and tight looking.. whereas the ones from the franco mix are very white and meaty..any thoughts ???

andy b

(they both smell good )

[Wohoki]

If they smell good, they probably are good.

How long did you brine them, and what are you going to do with them?

(I love hocks, I hit pensioners to get at them in the butcher's shop )

[Oddley]

If you post the recipe from HFW, we will probably be able to work out whats going on.

[Rik vonTrense]

When you talk about hocks.......are they the bit of the fore leg after the trotter has been taken off ?

They sell these in Tesco quite cheap but no one seems to buy them are they any good for anything ??

I used to buy the bacon hocks for a bit of pea soup ..............


.

[andyb]

I was going to soak them and boil them with lentils, or roast them after boiling...

the HFW recipe is 4kg salt (I added 80g saltpetre although he didn't), 2litre cider , 4 litre apple juice, 2kg demerera sugar, 2kg dark brown sugar, 20-30 juniper berries, 60g black peppercorns, 12 bayleaves and 8 litres water

I have soaked them for 16 days , there also hams in the brine which I will leave for a few more days and then soak, boil, and roast.

[Oddley]

Hi andyb can't see anything wrong with the HFW brine. You have ingoing about 1.6% salt and 1.6% sugar and approx 362 mg/kg saltpetre. So no idea why you have tight skin.

[andyb]

thanks oddley

curiously I assumed that the tight skin was a good sign.. the hocks look more "cured" if you know what i mean...

We did use some home made cider which is too tart to drink, maybe this explains it..they smell wonderful so I think we will go ahead and cook them up ..

Andy