74 rock recipes

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.

A succulent pork dish that is served with a savory gravy that can easily be made in your brand new crockpot!

A succulent chicken dish that is made with honey and orange juice.

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.

If your date's a sweetie, then there's no harm in making this succulent chicken dish with some help from your crockpot.

Salt-smothered chicken buried in a bed of red-hot rock salt with ginger, tangerine peel, and Szechuan peppercorn marinade sealed in the cavity. An ancient Cantonese technique that steams the bird to silken tenderness.

Spicy red bean soup with a smoky ham hock, cheesecloth-bundled cumin and cayenne, and a finish of Tabasco and parsley. A slow-simmered pot of Southern comfort food.

I like this sour flavor. The best over buckwheat, but all is fine when over rice, potatoes, noodles, or just with lettuce mix. You may use pickled grilled red pepper.

White Michigan bean soup is a three-ingredient classic: white navy-style beans simmered slowly with a smoked ham hock, then partly mashed to thicken. Old-school, no-fuss comfort.

Split pea soup simmers dried split peas with a smoky ham hock, onion, salt, and pepper for 90 minutes until the peas collapse into a thick green broth and the meat falls off the bone.

French market soup simmers a medley of dried beans with a smoky ham hock until tender, then brightens the pot with tomatoes and a finishing splash of lemon. A hearty, economical bean soup made from a colorful bean mix.

Southern mustard greens slow-simmered with smoked ham hocks, cabbage, and potatoes in a peppery pot likker. A one-pot soul food classic cooked low and slow.

Hearty smoked pork and bean soup built from ham hocks, dried pink beans, and beef stock with paprika and sauteed garlic. Partially pureed for a thick, velvety body. Serves 6.

Texas caviar made from dried black beans slow-simmered with a smoky ham hock, then tossed with sauteed peppers, onions, and fresh tomatoes. A Lone Star classic side dish.

Lima bean and ham stew, smoky ham hocks simmered with tender dried lima beans, onion, carrot and celery. A hearty, soul-warming pot of Southern comfort, with the ham shredded right back in.