Not Bacon: Give Grilled Cheese A Southern Twist With This Hearty Ingredient

Giving your grilled cheese a Southern twist doesn't mean you have to start using buttermilk biscuits and lard. Instead, you can use ham hocks, a seasoning meat that isn't always actually eaten but is always enjoyable.

The same thing that makes ham hocks delicious also makes them a bit difficult to use. Loaded with bone, connective tissue, and extremely tough meat, bringing out their flavor potential requires a lot of low-and-slow cooking. You may have more luck using smoked ham hocks for a deeper cure and smoke profile, though both smoked and raw hocks still require a long simmer to fully break down the tough collagen before transferring the meat to a sandwich. Regardless, adding shredded ham hock to grilled cheese gives you a tender, protein- and fat-laden ingredient that practically melts right alongside your gooey cheese.

Ham hocks are especially good when you "reuse" them. Cooking one dish with ham hocks and then using the meat in another lets you easily transfer complex flavors, a major tip for making any grilled cheese better. Hocks cooked in Southern-style collard greens adopt a perfectly moist texture and pick up acidity from vinegar and vegetable notes from the greens and onions. Similarly, ones cooked with black-eyed peas have a next-level creaminess, adopting earthy aromas to round out your sandwich. Still, if you want to preserve the smokiness of a fresh smoked ham hock, you can always simmer it for a couple of hours until the meat and skin fall apart, giving you a budget-friendly alternative to pulled pork.

Using ham hocks in your grilled cheese opens up new opportunities, since they're laden with fat and can make excellent use of leaner cheese varieties. Still, you should also consider what part of the hock to use, as some parts have more flavor than others and may require different ratios.

Typically, grilled cheese sandwiches rely on fatty, moisture-rich cheeses because they melt better than drier, aged varieties and carry that rich flavor profile. While you'll still want to use enough for a good texture, ham hocks provide plenty of decadence in their own right, so you can add a heavier sprinkle of Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano, aged Gouda, or Manchego viejo. These underrated cheeses can cut through heavier fats more easily and are immediately noticeable even in small quantities, giving you a chance to add more complexity.

When you work with a smoked ham hock, you'll quickly notice how intense the skin's flavor is. Rich in fat and smoky flavor, this is a versatile ingredient you can mash into a spread for your bread, provided it's been properly simmered, or slice thinly and sprinkle in with shredded cheese. The meat directly under the skin is usually pinker and less potent, so it's a great choice if you're looking for more protein but not quite as much smoke. Meat from the top and bottom of the hock may offer a good middle ground, potentially holding more richness and smoke than interior meat but not quite as much as the skin, though this can vary depending on how the hock was smoked and prepared.