The ham bone speaks

But what does it say to you?

Here's what it used to say to me: "Snet." To which I would reply, "Yuck!"

What is snet, you ask? I think it's actually snert, but rightly or wrongly I pronounce it as snet. It's pea soup made by Dutchmen. It's very thick, very green, made with a ham bone and beyond that I don't know. I've blocked it out as a bad childhood memory. It probably didn't help my young impressionable mind that my siblings and I called it "snot".

Sounds appetising, no?

No.

Some do like it, but it's not for me. So for years I threw the speaking ham bone away where it could freely say "snet" as loudly as it wanted from inside the garbage can. I was not listening.

But I learned something new this Christmas. My sister-in-law bought a beautiful double-smoked ham. I came home with her awesome idea implanted in my head and the actual ham bone to test it with. This particular ham bone was saying "chili", and within a week we ate the best chili I've ever made, made with the ham bone simmering away in the crockpot buried under the other chili ingredients.

Now ham bones no longer speak Dutch to me. They speak Spanish. Hola!

This week I bought a pork shoulder and I don't know why I'd never been introduced to one before. It smelled like ham and bacon as it cooked, tasted even better and the bone also spoke Spanish.

Into the deep skillet where the pork had cooked yesterday I threw some onions and then some ground beef. It still smelled like bacon. All day today the bone was immersed in the chili ingredients speaking lovely words like "Cómame, usted familia encantadora. ¡Delicioso!"

And it was!

What do your bones say?