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By Root 143 0

a large enameled cast-iron Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium-high heat. Add half of the pork and cook, turning as needed, until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer the pork to a plate. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and brown the remaining pork. Transfer to the plate. Add the bacon to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until browned and slightly crisp, about 7 minutes. Add the onion, garlic, jalapeños, and bell peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.

Return the pork cheeks to the pot along with any accumulated juices. Add the ale, chicken stock, tomatoes, chipotles, black-eyed peas, and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over very low heat until the meat and beans are tender, about 2½ hours.

Season the chili with salt and pepper. Spoon off the fat from the surface and discard the cinnamon stick. Serve the chili in bowls. Pass the smoked cheddar, cilantro, scallions, and crème fraîche at the table.

SPLIT PEA SOUP WITH BACON, HAM HOCK, AND SPARE RIBS

This is the dish that started my lifelong affinity for all things pork. Most weekends of my childhood, Pap, my dad’s dad, would take me to Cleveland’s West Side Market, a spectacular indoor market built in 1912 that still is what it was then, home to scores of vendors selling all manner of meats—sausages, pâtés, hams, even pig’s heads and lamb hearts—as well as fish, vegetables, spices, nuts, and dairy. At the market, he’d buy ham hocks, a side of ribs, a slab of bacon, and whatever else we’d need, then stop by Higbee’s department store, connected to the Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland, to pick up my grandma. The wonderful smell of smoked pig parts filled his big old Lincoln on our way to their house on the city’s east side.

This is a fall/winter dish, so I associate it with football, which we’d watch as we cooked all day. First Pap would brown the ribs in the bacon fat, and he’d throw in the chopped vegetables, then the ham hock and the split peas, cover everything with water, and simmer it for hours. From the moment that first bacon began to render, the whole house smelled all weekend of great food being cooked.

You don’t need to have homemade stock for this, and you wouldn’t want to adulterate it with store-bought broth. Water is all you need; the soup picks up the sweetness of the vegetables and the smoky rich flavors of the pork and it gets body from the connective tissue in the hock and ribs. It’s a great hearty soup. Pap would remove the hock, pick off the meat, and add the meat back to the soup. He didn’t purée it; he left the tender split peas intact. He’d pour it all into a big bowl, and at the table we’d scoop out ribs into our bowls and ladle in the chunky soup, which we’d devour with a big hunk of crusty bread. I get hungry thinking about it. There’s no better food in the world.

Serves 8 to 10

4 ounces slab bacon, finely diced (½ cup)

1 slab of pork spare ribs, cut into individual pieces (16 to 20 ribs)

1 small carrot, peeled and finely diced

1 red onion, finely diced

1 celery stalk, finely diced

1 tablespoon kosher salt, or more to taste

1 pound split peas (1⅓ cups)

1 garlic clove, minced

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

1 smoked ham hock

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Crusty bread, for serving

Sauté the bacon in a 6-quart Dutch oven over medium-low heat until the fat has rendered and it’s cooked, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the bacon to a plate with a slotted spoon, increase the heat under the pot to medium, and add the ribs. Brown on both sides, 3 minutes per side. Remove the ribs to a plate and set aside.

Add the carrot, onion, celery, and salt and sweat the vegetables for about 3 minutes. Add the split peas, garlic, bay leaf, thyme, ham hock, cayenne pepper, black pepper, the ribs, and 2½ quarts water. Simmer, skimming the foam that will rise to the surface as the water comes up to heat, until the peas and spare