Tried Richard's pork soup recipe in the the latest 2KetoDudes podcast (Episode 228)

(Bob M) #1

So, Richard and Carl discussed Richard’s 3-pork soup recipe. I did NOT make it with 3 varieties of pork, though I did make the soup/stock, as I had just bought half a pig where I got two smoked ham hocks, which is what Richard used.

Here’s what I did (with differences from Richard’s indicated):

Added 2 smoked ham hocks AND 2 “trotters”, since I had no idea what else to do with them (Richard just uses 2 smoked ham hocks). I used carrots, celery, and shallots, because we did not have an onion but had shallots. (Richard usually uses whatever vegetable parts he has on hand). The hocks and trotters were partly frozen, as I put them in the fridge only the night before.

I put these in our Instant Pot, filled the water to the maximum. I put the maximum time for high pressure, which is 2 hours.

After 2 hours, I took out the bones and took off the meat. I put the meat into the fridge (after leaving on the deck in near-freezing weather for a while). I put everything else (bones, vegetables) back into the pot. I put on high pressure for 2 hours, then added another 1 hour too. (Note: I did not add more water, although I think one could add a bit more to get to the maximum fill line again.)

I passed this through a colander and into a metal bowl with lid, which I put outside until it was cool, then into the fridge. It had a layer of fat on it, which I gently took off with a butter knife and spoon.

This is incredibly thick, past “jello” stage. You could probably cut it into blocks that would not deform if you wanted to do this.

I scooped into large jars, which I took to work and put in the fridge. I cut up the saved meat/fat (was quite fatty) into chunks using kitchen scissors. I cooked ground pork we got with the 1/2 pig, drained that, put into 4 containers for lunches at work (try to fast one day/week, so no lunch on that day). Only had about 6 ounces per lunch, so I added the cut up chunks of meat/fat.

I took to work, put the meat from one container into a large bowl I keep at work, scooped some thick pork “jelly” on this, put in the microwave 4+ minutes. Added a ton of salt. At home, I added pepper too, but I don’t have pepper at work.

Delicious.

I was concerned about the pork hocks being smoked, but that flavor is mellow. It blends into the background.

If anyone listened to this episode, and wants to add how the 3 varieties of pork are made and added, please do so. (My wife seems to be anti-pork soup, so I’m not going to try this.)

I do think the 5 hours of high pressure in the Instant Pot will be my new go-to for stock. I was using 2 hours, and that does not produce nearly the collagen or whatever it is that causes the result to be so thick as does the 5 hours.

(KM) #2

Sounds delicious! Why did you skim off the fat?

(Bob M) #3

I skimmed it off only because I think having a layer of fat on soup is…strange. But the next time, I might not do that, to see what happens.

And if you want the fat to cook with, you could use it for that too.

For most pork, I remove the fat, as I think it’s too high in PUFAs. However, this pork’s fat is great in terms of taste (most corn-fed pork’s fat tastes bad to me). So, I might have to revisit the idea of taking off/skimming the fat.

#4

I am the same, I use the soup fat for cooking :slight_smile: Sometimes I just can’t use lean enough meat for soups but it’s fine. I do love fat, fatty meat too but somehow I dislike really fatty soups.

Of course it got jellied so much (my normal 1-2 hour soups become a super soft jelly when cooled down), trotters do that (bones and skin does that so trotters are good at it). There is still aspic season in Hungary, one can buy trotters with sheets of skin to make aspic. I never made any, my SO’s Mom always give us a lot, it’s a lengthy process and I never was that enthusiastic, I just eat the result as long as it has some meat in it.

My pork soup is simple, I just toss some meaty bones into a pot with water and salt for 1.5 hours :slight_smile: But yours sounds good too. Once I had a smoked hock bone at hand and used that too, it only gave a subtle but noticeable extra flavor, I loved it. I may try to put some full hock inside one day :wink: At least my tender smoked hock won’t be covered with legumes as it is when I let my SO cook it… Not like it’s much but still.

(Bob M) #5

One time, I made turkeys, one in the oven, and one smoked. We then used the smoked parts (and the normal parts) to make turkey stock…and that was too smokey. Or maybe you’re not expecting smoke flavor in turkey stock?

I was concerned that would happen here, but it didn’t. And many other recipes that use smoked ham hocks use them for beans, so I didn’t know what to do with them (or the trotters).

I might not be able to make chicken stock using this technique until two weekends from now, but I plan to make it too, to see what happens. And this meets my goal of more collagen while still allowing some good amounts of meat (as additions to the soup).

#6

Me neither… I probably would have put them into a soup myself if my SO wouldn’t eat legumes with smoked pork hocks. It’s good. And it becomes so super tender, even the skin, it’s lovely… My part is all the skin, all the fat (it’s lovely but a lot) and half of the meat. Not ideal ratios but I can eat up everything, eventually.

I never made a fully turkey soup (and I don’t even think I ate smoked turkey, it sounds nice but it’s very expensive, I rather buy pork, I know that is tasty), only a chicken-turkey one. Meh just like the cheap chicken itself. Turkey is tasty but not tasty enough to balance it out. So nowadays I only make pork soup - or use a proper hen, not a young chicken. That has flavors galore! And the soup becomes a soft jelly.

Maybe one day I bring myself to cook a soup for longer than 2 hours, not now that spring arrived and less heating is needed… Never liked super long cooking but maybe it is worth it sometimes…?