Fall Comfort Food

Don't you just want to pull up a chair and dig in?

I wanted to comment on how hard it is to find certain foods, specifically smoked ham shank. And not the kind like beef or veal shanks where it's a horizontal slice but rather a whole shank. I asked the butcher at Vons/Pavillions and get this, they only had two ham products in at the moment, ham hocks and ham steak. He said they'll get more ham products for the holidays. Have you noticed also how pricey certain cuts of meat that used to be considered "peasant food" are? Beef short ribs are $5.99 a pound and they're mostly bone. A horizontal cut of beef shank weighs in at $4.99. And soup bones (i.e., dog bones) ring up at $3.99!

FYI - This is what a smoked ham shank looks like.

I've ventured out of the big chain groceries lately and tried smaller markets like Super A and Stater Brothers. Also found out by reading the Tuesday/Wednesday food ads that once a month Super A has beef shanks for $1.79 a pound and that their prices on short ribs are about half that of the big stores. Still no ham shanks. I "blame" my new interest in such cuts of meat on a recipe found on Cooking by the Seat of My Pants which is a really good food blog and the recipes are "kid tested" for any of you with picky eaters.  It was a recipe for "Braised Smoked Ham Shank with Beans and Rice", doesn't that sound delicious for a nice fall meal? It has a great pics of what a ham shank should look like and it's not a horizontal slice. So, my search will continue and I'll be armed with a photo print out from the recipe to help me.

P.S. I emailed Jerry Russell of Cooking by the Seat of My Pants for permission to use the photos above which he kindly granted. He also was very helpful, suggesting the two stores where I might find shanks. Unfortunately, we don't have them here. He did mention that he thought Wal-mart might have them. So I may be (cringe) venturing to a Wal-mart in the near future. Thanks for the help Jerry! Wish me luck!