Last night I unwrapped one of our hocks and was delighted to see just how meaty it was. Rather than the normal hocks you get in the supermarket ours weighed 4lbs and had the most amazing marbled meat. So rather than just make a split pea soup I decided to slow roast it in the new wood stove!
It all started at around 11.30am this morning, we lit the stove and got the oven up to 400degrees. From there we roasted the hock for 30 minutes uncovered, (In theory I am following Jamie Oliver's recipe but doing the whole thing in the wood stove).
I covered the hock with a double layer of foil and placed the roasting pan back into the oven. We allowed the temperature in the oven to drop to around 325 degrees and then maintained this heat for the next 4 hours.
Michael then added a little more wood to help bring the temperature back up to 400degrees. We removed the hock from the pan added some partially boiled potatoes, chopped carrots and celery, placed the hock on top of the veggies and cooked uncovered for another 75 minutes.
Not only were Michael and I looking forward to dinner as the smell through the house was rather yummy but Jorja and Zampa also spent most of the day laying by the stove!
Of course to enjoy Berkshire Pork you do not need a wood stove! I will try another roast in the oven and see how it compares to cooking with the wood. One of the benefits of cooking in the oven rather than the wood stove is you don't spend half the day looking like a beetroot from the heat. You can also keep most of your clothing on, we have spent today peeling layers off as it has got rather hot in the house.
looks absolutely delicious. Shame we are too far away to come for Sunday lunch!!
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