Pickled Pork & Other Proteins

recipes and notes from a home kitchen

I've been pickling pork hocks, pigs' feet, and whatever else fits in a jar for about as long as I've had a working refrigerator. This page collects the recipes I actually make on repeat, along with the safety notes I wish someone had spelled out for me the first time around.

None of this is shelf-stable canning — everything here lives in the fridge, not the pantry. If you're new to pickling meat specifically, read the notes at the bottom before you start; it's not the same as pickling cucumbers.

Classic Pickled Pork Hocks

The base recipe. Most of what I make is some variation on this one.

What you need

3–4 lbs pork hocks
Water to cover
1 onion, quartered
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp whole peppercorns
1 tbsp whole cloves
2 cups white vinegar (5%)
2 cups water
1 tbsp salt

How

Simmer the hocks in water with the onion, bay, and peppercorns until the meat is fork-tender and starting to pull from the bone — about 2½ to 3 hours, skimming as needed. Let them cool in the broth until you can handle them.

Pick off any small bone fragments and excess fat if you're deboning (whole hocks are traditional; deboned is easier to eat out of the jar). Pack into clean jars.

Bring the vinegar, fresh water, salt, and cloves to a boil, then pour hot over the hocks, leaving about an inch of headspace. Let cool uncovered on the counter, then lid and refrigerate.

Ready after about 3 days. Best within a few weeks — keep it cold the whole time.

Louisiana-Style Pickle Meat

Not really a finished dish on its own — this is what goes into a pot of red beans.

What you need

2 lbs pork shoulder, cubed
1 cup cider vinegar
½ cup water
¼ cup yellow mustard seed
1 tbsp celery seed
Hot sauce, a few dashes
1 tsp salt

Combine everything in a large zip-top bag or non-reactive container, making sure the pork stays fully submerged — add a splash more vinegar if it needs it.

Refrigerate, turning the bag once a day, for at least 5 to 7 days before using.

The pork stays raw the whole time it's pickling. It's meant to go into a pot of beans and cook there, not to be eaten straight from the bag.

Southern Pickled Pigs' Feet

A bar-jar classic. Deboning is optional but makes it a lot easier to eat.

What you need

4 lbs pigs' feet, split
Water to cover
1 onion
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp black peppercorns
2 cups white vinegar
1½ cups water
2 tbsp salt
1–2 dried chiles (optional)

Simmer the feet with the onion, bay, and peppercorns for 3 to 4 hours, until the meat is falling-apart tender. Cool in the broth, then pack into jars, whole or pulled apart.

Bring the vinegar, fresh water, and salt to a boil and pour over, adding the chiles if you're using them.

Refrigerate at least 4 days before eating.

Refrigerator Pickled Sausage

The gas-station-jar style, made at home. Works with kielbasa, smoked sausage, or cocktail wieners.

What you need

2 lbs fully-cooked smoked sausage, sliced
2 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes
A few garlic cloves, smashed

Pack the sausage into clean jars with the garlic. Bring the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and pepper flakes to a boil, then pour hot over the sausage, leaving a little headspace.

Let cool, then refrigerate.

Ready in about 3 days. Best within 3 to 4 weeks.

Spiced Pickled Eggs

The jar-on-the-counter picture you've seen is wrong — these need to stay cold.

What you need

1 dozen hard-boiled eggs, peeled
2 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
1 tbsp pickling spice
1 tsp salt
A few slices of beet (optional, for color)

Pack the peeled eggs loosely into a clean quart jar — don't pack more than a dozen into one quart. The vinegar needs room to actually reach every egg, not just the ones on the outside.

Bring the vinegar, water, spice, and salt to a boil, pour hot over the eggs, let cool, then refrigerate immediately.

These are one of the riskier things on this page if you get impatient with them. See the notes below before you dig in early.

Doing this safely

The short version: keep everything in the fridge, use at least as much vinegar as water (full-strength, 5% acidity, not watered down to taste), and don't try to make any of this shelf-stable at room temperature. Everything above goes in a jar, but none of it is a canning recipe.

Dense stuff is the hard case. Whole eggs, hocks with the bone still in, thick cuts — vinegar has to actually reach the center, and that takes time. That's not a reason to skip pickling meat, it's a reason to cut things smaller, cook them fully first, and be patient about how long you wait before eating.
Give it real time in the fridge before eating, not just until it tastes pickled. Plan on a few weeks for cooked pork, and closer to a week for eggs specifically — they're one of the pickier things to get right, so I lean cautious there.
If a jar ever looks cloudy, smells off, or the lid is bulging, it goes in the trash. No exceptions, no "let me just check." You can't smell or see the thing that actually makes pickled food dangerous, so don't use your nose as the final word on anything that's been sitting a while.

If any of this is new to you, the National Center for Home Food Preservation is the best plain-English reference I've found for the actual numbers behind all of this.