Pig trotter substitutes

The joint just above the trotter, so it is the same tissue plus a decent amount of actual meat.

Best for

collard greens, beans, braises, soups, Southern pot dishes

The most reliable swap and easier to find. Hocks give you the same collagen and the same silky, slightly sticky finish, with the bonus of real shreddable meat. Watch the smoke: smoked hocks are the norm in US supermarkets and will make a Chinese or Filipino braise taste distinctly barbecued, so ask for fresh unsmoked hocks for those dishes.

Cheap, meaty, cartilage-rich vertebrae from the pork neck.

Best for

beans and greens, stock, posole, long braises

Very close in function and often the cheapest pork on the counter. There is more meat than in a trotter and slightly less gelatin, so a pot made with neck bones has more to eat but a broth that sets a bit less firmly when chilled. They also fit a pot more easily than the awkward shape of a trotter, which is a genuine practical advantage.

Cross-cut sections of beef tail, similarly loaded with collagen around the bone.

Best for

braises, stews, rich soups, Caribbean and Chinese dishes

Equally gelatinous, so the finished sauce has that same coating richness. The obvious change is that the dish becomes beefy: a Filipino pata or a Chinese trotter braise made with oxtail tastes darker and more robust and loses the mild pork sweetness. It is also considerably more expensive, and it needs a similar three-hour cook.

Almost pure skin, tendon and cartilage, the most collagen-dense thing in the butcher's case.

Best for

stock, broth, ramen, soups, aspic and jellied dishes

If your reason for wanting trotters is body in a broth, chicken feet are arguably better and cheaper. The broth sets to a firm jelly when cold, exactly as trotter stock does. They contribute nothing to eat, though, and the flavor is poultry rather than pork, so a pot of greens seasoned only with chicken feet will taste thin and needs bacon or ham for depth.

A direct, unromantic way to add the collagen without the bones.

Best for

stews, brothy soups, sauces that need body, jellied dishes

This is the honest engineering solution when no suitable cut is available. Simmer the skin for an hour, then bloom the gelatin in cold water and whisk it into the finished liquid off the heat. You get the mouthfeel almost exactly. What you do not get is the pork flavor that hours of bone simmering builds, so the dish tastes correct in texture but somewhat hollow.

Fatty bone-in or boneless shoulder, which has plenty of collagen even without the feet.

Best for

braises, stews, bean pots, when you want meat to eat

The best choice if you actually want dinner rather than a gelatinous broth, and the least-bad option if trotters are genuinely unavailable. Shoulder has real collagen, just less concentrated, so the sauce is rich but noticeably thinner than a trotter braise and will not set to jelly in the fridge. Leave the lid slightly ajar for the last half hour to reduce and concentrate what is there.