Recipe: Hot bacon hock sandwiches

Hot bacon hock sandwiches. Photo / Doug Sherring

1 Buy smoked bacon hocks from your butcher, the kind you would use for a pea-and-ham soup.

2 Allow 1 per 2 guests. Left-overs and the hock bones can be converted to a soup base the next day.

3 In a large saucepan, cover the hocks with water and simmer. Add a bay leaf, some peppercorns, chopped carrot, celery and onion.

4 Simmer till the meat starts falling away, topping up the water if it reduces. Remove the hocks from the liquid and keep warm.

5 Keep the poaching water to add to the bones to make a soup base later.

6 When cool enough to handle, shred the meat from the bones and throw away the outer skin. If you want to rewarm this before serving, do so in a little of the cooking liquid.

7 Serve with good rye bread, butter, cheese, mustard and fresh pickled red cabbage.