Pork stock rewards a little know-how: how to choose it, cook it, store it, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 14 recipes to cook with it.

What is pork stock?

Pork stock is the savory liquid you get by simmering pork bones and aromatic vegetables in water until they give up their flavor and body.

It is rounder and a little sweeter than beef stock, with a soft richness that comes from how readily pork fat and collagen melt into the pot.

Old cookbooks dismissed it as too greasy for stock, but that is a fixable problem, and modern cooks lean on pork stock hard. It is the soul of a bowl of ramen and the quiet depth under a pot of beans or braised greens.

For the general rules that apply to every stock, see the parent stock page. This page covers what pork bones do that others do not.

Best Bones and Cuts

Pork is generous with the parts that make great stock. Trotters (pig's feet) are almost pure skin and cartilage, so they load the pot with gelatin and give you a stock that sets like firm jelly.

Neck bones and country-style rib bones are cheap and meaty, adding real pork flavor. Smoked ham hocks are the secret weapon: one hock turns a plain pot of stock into a smoky, savory base that makes beans and collards taste like they simmered all day.

A common, balanced batch is a couple of neck bones for flavor plus one trotter for body. Add a smoked hock when you want that ham-bone backbone.

Lean Toward Clean or Rich

You get to choose how the stock reads.

For a clean, light pork stock in the Japanese style, simmer the bones gently and skim hard, and you get a clear, golden liquid.

For tonkotsu, the famously milky ramen broth, you do the opposite. You boil pork bones hard for many hours so the fat and collagen emulsify into the water and turn it opaque and creamy. That is the one case where a rolling boil is the goal rather than the mistake.

Most home cooking wants the clean version. Bring the pot up slowly, skim the heavy foam that pork throws in the first half hour, and hold a gentle simmer.

Simmer and Skim the Fat

Pork bones give up flavor in three to four hours, and trotters or hocks can go longer for more gelatin. The real work is managing the fat, since pork renders a lot of it.

Skim during the simmer, then chill the strained stock so the fat sets into a firm cap you can lift off cleanly. That step alone answers the old greasiness complaint.

Cajun and Southern cooking put it to work, where a smoky pork base carries a skillet of Dirty Rice or moistens the cornbread stuffing in Cajun Stuffed Pork Chops. It is also the natural braising liquid for beans, lentils, and hearty greens.

Substitutes

Nothing matches pork stock cleanly, since its sweet, fatty character is its own thing. Chicken stock is the most neutral stand-in and will not fight the dish, though it loses the pork depth.

For the smoky ham-hock flavor specifically, a little chicken stock plus a chunk of bacon or a smoked turkey wing gets you most of the way. Beef stock is too assertive and pulls the dish in a different direction.

Buying and Storing

Pork stock is rare on store shelves, so most cooks make it or substitute. The closest shortcut is to simmer a leftover ham bone in water, which gives a quick, smoky pork stock with almost no effort.

Homemade keeps about four days in the fridge once the fat cap has done its sealing work. To hold it longer, freeze it in flat bags or cubes for around three months. Leave headroom, since the liquid expands as it freezes.

Quick facts

In Chinese

猪肉股

British (UK) term

Pork stock

en français

porc stocks

en español

carne de cerdo stock

Recipes using pork stock

There are 14 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 14 recipes