Still Life
November 13th, 2008Pre-Obama Salad Days, Only Without Salad
This is what every man’s dining table should look like.
You’re looking at a ham hock, collard greens, Vidalia slices, a hothouse tomato, cornbread made with bacon grease, and fried apples.
I should lie and say that’s Red Rose tea, but it’s not. I ran out yesterday. It’s GATORADE.
Still.
Here’s how to enjoy a ham hock. Eat the meat parts as is; they taste fine without help, because they’re ham. Eat the fat with a little hot sauce on it. It’s good without sauce, too, but variety is nice.
It seems like the Roegelein’s bacon scraps have a somewhat more subtle flavor than the strips. The cornbread–made with grease from the scraps I bought–tasted almost refined. I kind of prefer the stronger taste of the strips.
That tomato was surprisingly good, for a store tomato.
If you’re not from the South, you may wonder why I have a disassembled rifle on the table, and why I would eat that odd-looking food.
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Here’s a closeup of the greens and hock, so you can see the lovely, delicious pig grease.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:19 PM
What do I have to buy to get your cornbread recipe? I’m dying for some good cornbread. It’s gettin’ cold outside.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:22 PM
Being a yankee that’s lived in Europe for twenty years I have a Stupid question: Are the ham hocks smoked? When I lived in Germany the southern germans (Bavarians) roast ham hocks on a rotating spit over a charcoal fire. It was Cracklin good bear food. Also, cooked or raw ham hocks are anything but cheap in Germany, but very cheap here in England. Lamb shanks are what’s expensive in the UK.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:36 PM
The cornbread recipe is in the cookbook. Unfortunately, it says to use 2/3 of a cup of milk. Typo. It should say 1 1/2 cups, and I usually get by with 1 1/4.
The hocks are smoked.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:54 PM
You are dead on about soul food. I am originally from IL and approaching 79 and we ate all that stuff. Not always because we wanted to, it was that or do with out.
I like your new format. I have dial-up and too cheap to go high speed or broadband and could never get the pictures to come up, now they do.
November 13th, 2008 at 7:32 PM
Do they sell scrapple on that side of the state? Every once in a while Spouse and I will have scrapple and eggs for our breakfast for dinner night.
November 13th, 2008 at 7:43 PM
Oh man. Collard Greens dosed in vinegar with Hamhocks and Cornbread? (I don’t know that you had vinegar with them, but that’s how I would have had ’em).
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Suddenly the Pesto Ravioli I just had for dinner seems like just so much wheat germ. Man, I wish the grocery stores up here would stock hocks 🙁
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On the brighter side, I’m switching to Black Raspberries for the Cheesecake topping…The local price of Blueberries is climbing faster than an ARM Mortgage Interest Rate during the Carter Administration, so I switched to Black Raspberries…I’ll let you know how it goes.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:02 PM
That’s a fine looking table you have there!
November 13th, 2008 at 8:27 PM
Thanks. Now I’m hungry.
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But ham hocks to me has always meant they were cooked in beans: to the point it never occurred to me otherwise. I *will* keep in mind that the book’s cornbread recipe is times-2 though.
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…really, really hungry.
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(It’s chicken and dumplings ’round here tonight …but this weekend, I think I smell ham hocks and beans off yonder.)
November 13th, 2008 at 9:46 PM
OH LAWD you are KILLING me!!!!!!
November 13th, 2008 at 11:00 PM
No, no, no. If you want to sell the picture, it has to have a more pretentious title. “Still life with Pork and Gun”. Or for the hippie set, “Still life with doubleplus extra death and BUSH LIED!!”
November 14th, 2008 at 1:57 AM
Keep eating your collards and kale kids. Its full of lutein which keeps you from getting macular degeneration. (large blind spot in vision)
November 14th, 2008 at 3:27 AM
mazheltov!
l’chaim!
November 14th, 2008 at 5:43 AM
Thanx! I’m off to the bookstore when it opens. I WILL have cornbread.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:17 AM
GATORADE!!! And I thought I knew you…
November 14th, 2008 at 9:57 AM
I wanted to email you this article from the San Diego Reader but I see no way to do that (maybe I’m blind), other than commenting on a post. Anyway, it’s an article about meat. I thought you might find it interesting. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/nov/05/live-butchers-live/
November 14th, 2008 at 5:29 PM
Is that a candle I see in the front? VERY romantic!
November 14th, 2008 at 11:50 PM
I am not from the South and I do not wonder why you have a disassembled rifle on the table. I wonder why your rifle isn’t clean, assembled, loaded and ready to go. Are you doing some weird food-pervert kind of thing like using the magazine springs to mash potatoes? Are you using the cleaning rod as a shishlik skewer? OTOH, who am I to question what a man does in the privacy of his own kitchen.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:52 PM
Valerie,
Unless Steve is attempting to set his chest hairs on fire, I believe that’s a reflection from his light fixture. But you’re right, nothing says “love” like a mess of collard greens!
November 15th, 2008 at 3:43 AM
Nothing quite like a show of force about the potential enjoyment of any menu item eh?
Luv ham hocks, too bad the grocery actually thinks they are worth triple what they actually are. I mean if I gotta pay the price of a ham, then I’ll purchase a ham.
Bone in! Take the entire butt and have one hella pot of ham n beans.
Serving a ham hock as an entree? Would not happen here. But the rest of the meal? Oh yeah, just add some meat!
November 15th, 2008 at 3:45 AM
Oh and WTF is it with blogs that don’t direct you back to the main page? That has always puzzled me.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:53 AM
“I wonder why your rifle isn’t clean, assembled, loaded and ready to go.”
I blasted the salt out of it after I shot it, but I forgot to clean it. I am completely capable of forgetting to clean a rifle that is sitting in front of me, disassembled, while I eat dinner.
Everybody loves the AK, but they are a nightmare to clean, and that corrosive ammunition means you have to get started right away.
November 20th, 2008 at 5:24 PM
Perfect.. except the banana pudding is missing.