Smoked Neck Bones

Smoked Neck Bones

Ingredients:

5 pounds pork neck bones or ham hocks
8 cups water
¾ cup kosher salt
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons pink salt, aka Prague Powder
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Instructions:

1.Make the brine by placing all the ingredients, except for the neck bones, in a large bowl and stirring until the salt and sugar are dissolved.

2.Place the neck bones in a stainless steel or food grade plastic bucket/container with a lid, or divide between 2-gallon zip lock bags, and pour the brine over the neck bones. Cover with lid or close the zip lock bags and place the latter in a large dish to catch any leakage. Make sure the neck bones are covered in the brine. Refrigerate for 7 days, flipping the zip lock bags over each day to ensure even distribution of the brine.

3.After 7 days rinse off the neck bones and place them on a wire rack on a cookie sheet and refrigerate them uncovered for another 24 hours. This will help the smoke to better adhere to the neck bones.

4.Set your smoker to 200 degrees F and place the neck bones or ham hocks on the smoking grates, making sure they're not touching each other. Smoke the neck bones until they've reached an internal temperature of 150 degrees F, adding a handful of wood chips a couple of different times throughout the process. Smoking time will vary depending on the size of the neck bones but you can figure on about 2 hours.

5.Once done, wrap the neck bones and freeze them for long-term storage or refrigerate if you plan on using them within a week.

6.IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SMOKER: You can create a makeshift smoker in your oven. Here's how: Place some wood chips in the bottom of a roasting pan (or something like it) on the bottom shelf of the oven and add just enough water to the pan to moisten the chips without immersing them in water. Cover the pan with aluminum foil creating a tent at the top where the smoke can come out and circulate around the meat. Then place the prepared hocks on the oven rack above it and then roast them at 200 degrees F until they reach that 145 degrees F internal temperature.