(Or any time of day, I guess.)
Half of our freezer space was taken up by bones, or whole birds for roasting. After yet another round of looking for a brick of scrapple I made in, like, March without success, I lost my patience and decided the bones needed to be dealt with. Since the ham bones took up the most space, I dealt with those first.
Step one: Stock
Stock is easy, especially because I have an Instant Pot (and no professional affiliation with Instant Pot) so I can get bones in water and cooking for 3 days without having to think very hard about it.
(Don’t be like me, where I am stupid and run it continuously. Take out the insert and stick it in the fridge overnight so your unit gets a break.)
It came out gelatinous as all get out. Here’s a clip from right after skimming the fat off of cooled stock.
I then had to re-heat it to strain out the solids (including a few stray bones), and then stick it back in the fridge to cool and get wiggly again. Unfortunately, as far as I’ve been able to find, I can’t pressure-can ham stock safely, so it went into the freezer. Even then, it takes up way less space than it would as a bag of loose bones.
Step two: Bone meal
Bones get crumbly if you cook them long enough for stock. I don’t like to waste anything that comes off an animal because it’s disrespectful, and bones have phosphorus in them, which helps plants develop roots and flowers. Pop them in the dehydrator, or the toaster oven on low, and once dry, smash them until they can be ground down. (I saw on one message board that people put larger bones inside a feed bag and smash them with a mallet.) Or, cook them until they’re crumbly and then strain and dehydrate them, if you wanna take the Salt In My Coffee approach.
Step three: Scrapple
After removing the solids, if there’s still any flavor left, it can be mixed with a few ladles of stock, a starch of your choice (buckwheat flour is traditional and gives scrapple its grey color, but I use corn meal), and a little bit of sage and other spices. I mash the scraps with my fingers until they’re pretty goopy, which also helps me find and pick out any tiny bits of bone. In addition to the sage, I added a little mustard, but no salt since there was plenty in the ham scraps and stock. Cook the mix of meat scraps, stock and starch until it’s very thick, making sure you scrape it off the edges of the pan regularly. When it’s at a point where it’s a little wetter than Play-Doh texture, transfer it to a loaf pan to cool, or bake it first to dry it out even more if you want. (But, cool before slicing no matter what.) If you want, you can then put it in a bag with as much air removed as possible and stash in the freezer. Slice and fry to cook it like normal. I’ve found that, as long as you can slice it while frozen in the first place, scrapple will cook from frozen just fine.
I like it crispy.
Step four: Rendered fat
Ironically, last time I was rendering fat from a ham, I had Porco Rosso playing in the background.
Skim the fat layer off the top of cooled stock, heat it in a little pan (I like my Moomin milk pan, which I use for basically everything) until the remaining water has evaporated, and then pour it through a filter of your choice into a jar. (Or, maybe I should get the oil pot that matches this milk pan.)
Even though I’m using a coffee filter in this image, I’ve found they’re actually pretty terrible for straining fat. Cloth filters will suit this better. Also, choose a jar that isn’t too deep, so you don’t have to root around in it to scoop the fat for cooking. I’ve found out the hard way, albeit with homemade granola, that poking around with a spoon too aggressively, and at a bad angle, can lead to a shattered jar.
RIP chocolate granola.
This is great for frying eggs, except the ones I make for my dog. Because my dog gets pastured eggs for breakfast every day since the omega 3s are good for his heart. But his are fried in olive oil or duck schmaltz for a low sodium option, which ham fat is not.
Did you know that dietary cholesterol isn’t a thing that has any real effect on dogs? That’s wild to me. I love that for them.
Of Cabbages and Strings 