Ham Hock Gravy

Ham hock liquor is the most flavourful stock you can make for almost no money, but it will be salty and you have to manage that. Soak the hock, discard the first water, and taste before you add so much as a grain of salt. What you get is a smoky, savoury gravy that is brilliant over pease pudding or a plate of greens.

Ingredients

Makes about 600ml, plus a pile of shredded ham

• 1 large (about 1.2kg) smoked ham hock
• 1 onion halved, stuck with 2 cloves
• 1 carrot
• 1 stick celery
• 1 leek green part only
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 black peppercorns
• 3 litres (5.25 pints) cold water plus more for the soak
• 30g (1oz) butter
• 25g (1oz) plain flour
• 3 tbsp flat leaf parsley chopped
• 1 tsp English mustard
• black pepper and salt only if it needs it, which it may not

Kit

• Large saucepan
• Tongs
• Fine sieve
• Whisk

Method

1. Put the hock in a large pan, cover with cold water and leave it in the fridge to soak for at least 4 hours or overnight. This draws out a good share of the curing salt and it is the difference between a usable stock and an inedible one.

2. Drain and discard the soaking water. Cover the hock with the 3 litres of fresh cold water, bring to the boil for 3 minutes, then drain again. Yes, that is a second lot of water gone, and yes it is still worth it. Rinse the pan of scum.

3. Return the hock to the clean pan with fresh water to cover by 4cm, add the clove studded onion, carrot, celery, leek greens, bay and peppercorns.

4. Bring to a bare simmer and hold it there for 3 hours, uncovered, skimming occasionally. Never let it boil, or the meat tightens and goes stringy instead of falling apart.

5. The hock is ready when the bone pulls clean out of the meat with no effort. Lift it out, let it cool enough to handle, then strip the meat and shred it, discarding skin, fat and gristle.

6. Strain the liquor. Now taste it. If it makes you wince it is too salty, so dilute it with water until it tastes like a well seasoned soup rather than a mouthful of sea.

7. Reduce 900ml of the tasted liquor down to about 700ml only if it is not already salty enough to stand it. This is the one stock where reduction is optional and salt decides.

8. Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook to a pale roux for 2 minutes. Whisk in the hot liquor, simmer 5 minutes, then stir in the mustard, the parsley and plenty of black pepper. Add a handful of the shredded ham if you want it chunky. Taste before adding any salt at all.

Tips worth knowing

• Soak, boil, drain, refill. It feels wasteful but an unsoaked hock gives a stock so salty you cannot reduce it at all.
• Never salt this until the last second, and often not at all. The cure has done the job for you.
• The shredded meat is a second meal. It goes into a ham and parsley terrine, a soup, or a toastie the next day.
• Mustard is not just for flavour, it cuts the fattiness and stops the gravy feeling heavy.

Keeping and reheating

Liquor keeps four days in the fridge and freezes for four months, though the salt means it is best labelled clearly. Finished gravy keeps three days and reheats gently.

Questions people ask