Jul 29 2014
One meat I very seldom see around here are neck bones. The other day when I was at my butchers, Kah Meats, and I saw two bags of pork neck bones in his freezer I had to have a bag. The one I chose was 4.49 lbs. at .79 cents a pound! Neck bones are usually used for making soups or stews so I went looking for a recipe.
I found one at Food52 by Pat; she posts to Foo52 and has a blog spot, inpatskitchen.blogspot.com. Her Smoked pork neck bone gravy over rice was just what I wanted.
She used 1 ½ lbs. of smoked neck bones and a lb. of ones she browned up. I smoked my own neck bones and changed the cooking order some but all the ingredients were hers.
I smoked a little over half of the bones in my Traeger seasoned with Penzey’s Cajun seasoning. I did them on smoke mode P4 and was running 170 to 180 grill level the first hour. After I got them on at 12:00 I finished up the back yard mowing I didn’t get done yesterday. At 1:00 the grandson came to stain my park bench; his first big paint job and he did great!
The second hour my smoker was running about 180 to 190 deg. grill level; I had my 6 inch amazin tube smoker going with oak pellets for some extra smoke.
At 2:00 I upped the smoker to 300 deg. for about 35o deg. grill level while I got my 5.5 quart Dutch oven with a TBS. of bacon grease heating on my outdoor gas burner to brown up the rest of the neck bones with a little salt and pepper. I had to do them in two batches and transferred them to a large stainless pot. I added the smoked bones and covered with water. I added a stalk of celery, a small onion salt and pepper and brought to a slow boil. I took the Dutch oven inside to use for the rest of the cook.
While the neck bones were cooking I baked a box mix cornbread in a cast iron skillet in the oven. I know this is a southern dish and most southerners would prefer non-sweetened cornbread, but I am a Yankee and like sweet cornbread!
The cornbread was done and the neck bones had been cooking about an hour and a half. I removed the bones and took inside to cool. I set the pot off the burner and covered to add the broth back in.
After the bones had cooled enough to handle I picked all the meat off. I diced up a large Vidalia onion, 5 celery sticks and 1 ½ large green peppers. I used some extra of all since I had more meat than Pat’s recipe. I added a TBS. of bacon grease to my Dutch oven and took back out to my gas burner. When it got hot I added the veggies in with a little dried garlic flakes, salt and pepper and cooked until the veggies were soft. I added the broth back in and all the meat from the neck bones and brought to a slow boil. Later I added about 3 TBS. Worcestershire sauce.
I opened a can of collard greens for me to have and heated with some salt, pepper and hot sauce. My wife does not like greens. I had brown flour on hand so mixed a half cup with ¾ cup of water and made slurry to thicken the broth.
All had been cooking about an hour and a half so I added in the flour slurry; it thickened up pretty quick so I stirred in some sliced green onions and took inside. I had rice done in my rice cooker; it was a little before 6:00. My wife just had the gravy over rice with cornbread and butter. I had the gravy over rice, topped with some more sliced green onions, Cholula hot sauce, salt and pepper. I had my greens on the side and had 3 pieces of buttered cornbread to eat with it.
My wife liked it and I thought it was great. I don’t think you could find any cheaper dish with this much flavor to fix. It would fill a lot of bellies at a reasonable price! This is a true southern comfort food and tasted pretty good with the cool weather we have been having. I will definitely fix it this winter. I know my butcher will always get me some neck bones.
Link to Pat's recipe
https://food52.com/recipes/21069-lip-smackin-neck-bone-gravy-and-rice
My Supper
Smokin Don
