Nationwide, it’s easy to source online via retailers like Broadbent, Wild Fork, and Heritage Foods. Seek out ham hock that’s dark in color and “aggressively smoked,” Gillespie suggests.

"Hock burn", caused by ammonia in excrement, is visible on a third of supermarket birds, according to data analysed by the BBC. It is associated with a "high stocking density of birds", a result ...