Northwest Fishing Reports

Smoked Ham Hocks. What a delectable piece of bone fat and meat,which is a key ingredient in making Baked beans,Calico Beans,pea soup,or lentils. I buy my hocks from three places only. One is Stewarts in McKenna,Owens in Cle Elum or Western Meats in Tumwater.

I get them pre sliced for easier cooking. They add a certain flavor and act as a natural thickening to the above mentioned dishes.The bone marro and fat add a gelatenous (thickening) to the soups and beans. I know they are not the healthiest but I try to use just a couple pieces to my dishes. I've bought them at grocery type stores and they have a bit of a rancid taste. Thats why I prefer getting them fresh from live butchers.

Try them sometimes on your next pea or bean soup. You wont be dissapointed.

ever think about smoking your own?

I have in the past.I find getting them allready at the butcher is easier to cut the bone. Hock bones are very hard to cut with a conventional hack saw or even a saw zall. For just the cutting I go to the butcher.

I bought some recently to add to my lentil soup from Golden Steer in Bellevue. If you get them in the chain stores they are mostly fat and skin. These had plenty of meat on them and also weren't heavily salted.

I very very seldom buy any meat from the Grocers. Very few groceries even sell USA Grass fed beef. I prefer grass fed over grain fed beef. The three stores I mentioned sell either Mt St Helens beef company or IBP (Iowa beef packers)Hocks in the stores dont taste good to me. The hocks I get are almost totally meat.They are good.Sylvana Meats is another good store.They can be a bit pricey .I just bought a 3lb bag of lentils at Cash N' Carry for like 2-3 bucks. I get my Great Northern and Pinto beans there too.

there's another good meat shop that a lot of you drive bye on the way to the Cowlitz...
"The Beef Shop"....next to the freeway on the sth bound side as ya go through Centraila
....DOG

Been to the Beef Shop . Its in Centrailia. They will custom slaughter cut and wrap for you. Lamb Pig or beef.You can take it on the hoof too.She custom cut some Ribeyes for me. She asked " how thick do you want the steaks"?. I was drooling already. Hehehe. I like my beef to mooo when I put my fork in it to eat.

as far as custom cutting sylavana meats does the same. made the mistake of getting 2 inch thick rib eyes,:cyclopsan they were like little roast's:chef:

Salty? I went to Sylvana meats today for some Ham Hocks trusting your judgement. Ive been to Sylvana meats quite a few times . This time I was on a mission.I bought Ham hock that looked so fricking delicious. These are hocks cut right off the picnic. I bought a 1/2 dozen at 8-12.00 each. Pricey??? not for these babies. These hocks could win a prize just by looks and that smokey smell. I am very impressed. Of course I went for hocks only and walked out spending a bill and a half before I left carrying out a few bags . I also bought their smoked bacon ends all cubed up. For real German Saurkraut. My mouth is watering whilst I type.The cubed is also good in soups. I got 2 each 2" thick rib-eyes. They are lil roasts. Im a guy that can eat the "Ole 96er".The snow geese were all in the fields next to the firehouse hole on the Stilly.Thats always an awesome sight.

My eyes glaze over and I start salivating at the thought of Sylvana's thick cut long bone rib eyes. A rub of crushed garlic, a little salt & pepper, and unto the grill. If you really want to make your cardiologist faint; have Sylvana split lengthwise a beef leg bone and grill it with the rib eye steak. Spread the marrow on some thick cut toast. Their ham hocks are great in both saurkraut and in split pea soup. I'm about due to make another batch of split pea soup. The last batch that I made was right after Christmas. By now the Puget Sound air pollution index should be back down (if you know what I mean) :colors:

Youre funny. I had some younger fishing buddies over the house one night for dinner. The bones in my soups have loads of marrow. I was sucking it out of the bone and these poor kids were turning green listening to that slurpy noise it makes. I did the same and spread it on my bagguette piece and ate it. I really thought they were gonna lose it at the table. Darned youngins. Dont know good food.... LOL.


Now my crockpot is going with the hocks and great northern beans. Tonite I'll be eating a nice thick bean porridge.

A couple months ago I smoked a ham with Brown sugar, butter, and clove. We kept the bone with a bunch of meat on it and put it back in the freezer for the crock pot.

A couple weeks ago my wife busted out the frozen ham bone and added it to some rehydrated mixed beans.

Its unbelievable how good it turned out. I wish I could share but Im on the last bowl...

ham hocks and black eye peas.i also found that hans german deli in burien also smokes his own ham hocks. I use to buy them at any store ,but the salt that someplace use is awful.so now i try to stay with hans since its close in town and stewarts when i go to get a few good skirt steaks ,i will pick up some hocks while im at it. question i see that now some places are selling shanks that are cut in rounds. anybody try them in soups

I have used shanks and hocks in my bean soups, they work interchangably to me. I have also used leftover spiral ham bones with meat left on them.