Ham Hocks

Hiromi recently checked out several Wal-Mart customers who were buying ham hocks with a WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) food assistance card. The ham hocks looked like miniature whole hams, except there wasn't much meat on them--mostly bone covered by skin. "What do you do with these?" he finally asked one customer, after his curiosity grew enough to overcome his reluctance to ask a nosy question.

"We use them to flavor beans."

"Get some for Tuesday night's supper," I suggested after Hiromi recounted his experience. I had planned a white beans and kale crock supper and knew that adding ham hocks to the pot would lend some wonderful flavor to the dish. I had never cooked with them, but I could picture them--the sliced off end of a fat ham, cured and cooked along with all the meatier parts, but severed at the end of the process in order to make a tidier, more attractive package to display in the meat case.

Hiromi reported at supper tonight that when he asked the guy at the meat counter where to find the ham hocks, he could see the disdain on his face. "Why do you buy something with so little meat on it?" he asked. Hiromi had already told him that he wanted something to flavor beans after he at first mistakenly started down a pig's feet trail, and realized after he saw them that no; pig's feet weren't right at all. So he tried to describe what he wanted because he couldn't remember the name.

The guy at the meat counter's reaction got me thinking about how people are likely made to feel when they buy ham hocks, especially with a WIC card--like poor, stupid folks who don't know anything about smart shopping and who have totally unrefined tastes.

What I know, and the WIC people might also know, is that if you add ham hocks to white beans, you're not counting on the meat from the ham hocks to provide protein for your meal. You're counting on the beans to be the protein source, and nothing more is required of the ham hocks than bubbling away until they're fished out at the end of the cooking process. Granted, the fished out pile looks very messy and fairly unappetizing, but it's easy to offer it without regrets to the half-wild cats on the farm, and those ham hocks move effortlessly on to bless another set of humble scavengers.

Beans are smart food--economically and nutritionally. Their high fiber content makes a person feel satisfied after having taken in far fewer calories than would be the case with an equal volume of meat.

Let that guy at the meat counter have his thick ham slices. (On another day I'll have them too.) But let him save his sympathy or disdain for the poor ignorant people who buy ham hocks. They don't need either sympathy or disdain. They need nutritious, inexpensive, good-tasting food, and ham hocks help them get it. The meat counter guy will no doubt keep right on indulging in a surfeit of protein and feel smart while doing it. I'll do my best not to regard him with disdain for doing so.

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The kale Hiromi told me he bought turned out to be turnip greens. It said so right on the long twistie around the bundle. I used them exactly as I would have used kale, and it turned out fine.

To the beans I added onions and garlic, sauted in olive oil with the greens before adding to the beans. When the beans were soft, I added salt and pepper, and some red pepper flakes, along with a small can of tomato sauce.

It was exactly our kind of good.