Two meat related leftover food questions.

[randomness]

Question 1:

I have large bones from the leftovers from two restaurant dishes.

One is a lamb shank from a Greek place.

The other is the large bone from a pork butt, made by a Chinese place.

After stalling for a few days and leaving them in the fridge in the styrofoam containers they came home in I've wrapped them up in foil and put them in the freezer.

I am now wondering if they will work in a soup or stew base, together or separately. (Together, it would be some kind of hunter's stew, with a variety of meats and possibly some sausage.) If so, how would it be best to use them?

Question 2:

I have some of the remaining fat and skin stripped from the pork butt that I would like to prepare in some way, mostly as a snack. I suppose I could fry them up and serve them with something else.

How would it be best to use these?

Comments

[flit]

I save all my animal bones for stock. I don't always separate them, though I generally separate say lamb from chicken. (The strong taste of lamb can overpower chicken.) Bones are also good tucked into a pot of beans or a stew or braise, to enrich the sauce; just remember to fish them out before serving.

If you save all of your veggie scraps, it can be very easy to make stock without even putting extra vegetables in. Onion and garlic skins, herb stems, tomato skins, potato peelings (not green ones), squash guts, all of this can go into stock. The only thing I don't put into the stockpot is trimmings from cruciferous vegetables and anything that is rotten or moldy. (This probably goes without saying.) I like to add celery seed to my stock because we don't use a lot of fresh celery and it can balance the sweetness of squash and onion.

I really like pork fat with beans; I just had some pork chops that had a very thick layer of fat, so I cut that off and put it into a braise of beans and beef shoulder. It came out very nicely!

My favorite use for pork skin is to get it crispy and eat it straight. You can also fry the fat up. (Save the rendered fat for other cooking, and eat the crispy part.)

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Pork/ham bones are WONDERFUL in a soup, mostly a pea soup or other legume. Just drop it in when you start up the soup along with any extra parts (some fat, skin) from the ex-piggy. Easy pea soup recipe: 1 bag dried split peas, 1 box vegetable broth/stock, the various parts of the ex-piggy, and salt/pepper/cumin to taste (the stock/broth has some spices too). Cook for about 45 mins or until the peas disintegrate. Add water if the end result is a little thick for your taste. Yum!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Thanks! bedfull_o_books did suggest the pea soup idea, and I may go with that.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of doing something like the potatoes in a skillet thing with the pork fat, in fact.

I have potatoes! And eggs, also.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Oh man, now I want lamb stew. Hmm.

[apintrix.livejournal.com]

You will get more flavor off lamb bones for soup (not sure about pig) if you roast them first with some onions and carrots until they're browned but not burnt. Burnt ruins the broth.

Then use the bones & veg as a base for stock. Lamb scotch-broth usually involves barley, potatoes, celery, carrot, parsley, rosemary.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for the suggestion!

These bones have already been cooked, so does that mean that I should still roast them again, or does that take care of the roasting?

[apintrix.livejournal.com]

You still roast them; it adds complexity to the flavor of the stock. (Unless they're already all browned, I guess.) This is something my mom does with leftover bones from bone-in roasts.

You're welcome!