102 hock recipes

Lobster and roasted corn chowder with bacon, smoked ham hock, and a Southwestern kick from jalapeño and green chiles. A creamy bowl built from a lobster-stock base and pan-charred corn kernels.

Country vanilla ice cream churned the old-fashioned way, with a rich custard of eggs, cream, milk, and real vanilla. Made in an electric rock-salt freezer for the creamiest, most nostalgic scoop of summer.

Quick, easy and tasty! The stir-fried cabbage can be served with steamed rice or crusty bread.

Homemade salted eggs brined in rock salt water for three weeks until the yolks turn firm, golden-orange, and richly savory. Just three ingredients and patience. Serve quartered with rice or congee.

Preserved grape vine leaves for making dolmades all year. Fresh-picked early-summer leaves get bundled, blanched in salted water, then packed into jars with rock salt brine for long-term pantry storage.

Traditional Ukrainian fermented beet juice made with just beets, salt, water, and a slice of sourdough bread. Tangy, earthy, and ruby-red after one to two weeks of natural fermentation.

Layers of tofu ricotta, herb-sautéed zucchini, golden mushrooms, and spinach stacked between artichoke lasagna noodles in a rich spaghetti sauce. A hearty vegan lasagna for 8 that's loaded with vegetables and bakes up bubbling and gorgeous.

Cold crab dip with flaked imitation crab, crunchy celery, green onions, fresh dill, and a creamy mayo-sour cream base. Make-ahead party dip best after an overnight chill, served with crackers.

Oysters in champagne sauce: plump shucked oysters cloaked in a silky butter-champagne sauce, broiled just until golden on a bed of rock salt. An elegant appetizer for New Year's Eve or any holiday table.

Prime rib roasted in a rock salt crust that seals in every drop of juice, producing fork-tender, deeply seasoned meat. A showstopping Old English technique you crack open with a hammer.

Salt-roasted shrimp with a scampi beurre blanc dipping sauce. A showstopper appetizer where shrimp cook shell-on over a bed of rock salt and get served with a buttery white wine dip.

Two easy fish brine recipes for smoking: a basic salt-and-sugar brine and a stronger brown sugar cure. Customize with garlic, dill, or tarragon for smoked fish that keeps up to a year frozen.

Baked oysters with garlic pine nut butter: fresh oysters baked in their shells under a compound butter of toasted pine nuts, garlic, shallots, fresh herbs, brandy, and lemon. A restaurant-grade appetizer.

Chinese red-cooked chicken drumsticks with chestnuts braise crispy fried chicken in dark soy sauce, sherry, five-spice, and rock sugar until glossy mahogany. A classic hong shao technique for festive Chinese dining.

Chinese hot orange soup made with fresh-squeezed orange juice, rock sugar, and preserved ginger, lightly thickened with cornstarch. Served warm with citrus slices and cream wafers.

Oysters Thomas bakes fresh oysters on the half shell topped with lump crab meat, bearnaise sauce, and cream sauce under golden bread crumbs. An elegant appetizer.