Hot To Trot, Vol 1
I have four pig trotters in my freezer. Well, I had four. One's in a pot right now so that leaves three. How did I get pig trotters? Last weekend was the curling club's season-ending pig roast and I was one of the people assigned to pick up the pig from the butcher. When we arrived she was ready to go and I noticed that the trotters were still sitting on the side of the table. I asked the butcher if he was going to use them and he said no, so I scored four free pig trotters!
What the hell do you do with them?
Well I've had the trotters with foie gras at Montreal's amazing Au Pied De Cochon but I wasn't doing that. Don't have the skills or the resources. So, my wife consulted the good old web and got some recipes. I also consulted Fergus Henderson's "Nose To Tail Eating" but the recipes involved a bit of butchering and since my meat fabricating skills are nonexistent I opted for simpler approaches.
Today I tried what seemed to be the simplest one: trotter soup. Makes all the sense in the world for a hunk of meat that is mostly bone and connective tissue. The instructions said chop the trotter into 4 pieces, rub with soy sauce, cover with water, boil until tender, shred the meat off the bone, add some aromats, simmer for a bit more and finish with a bit of fresh cilantro for garnish. Sounds good, I thought.
Step 1 was a bit of a problem. I tried my chef's knife (still sharp enough to cleanly slice paper as I hone it constantly) a serrated knife and an old meat cleaver. No dice. I considered using a circular power saw but the thought of spraying connective tissue and bone chips all over the kitchen curtains didn't do anything for me. So, I just rubbed the whole thing with soy sauce and tossed it into a pot. 3 hours in and I can finally penetrate the skin with a fork, but the meat is nowhere near what you'd call "tender". So it sits and simmers. And I sit and wait.
Fortunately for me we weren't relying on this for dinner. I'm roasting a whole farm-fresh chicken bought from Klein Farms in Easton PA for dinner and we're having some roasted broccoli and a cheese course with the last of the stuff from Marche Atwater. I figure I may just wind up with a nice portion of pork stock out of this. We'll see.
And then I have 3 more "experiments' to try.
What the hell do you do with them?
Well I've had the trotters with foie gras at Montreal's amazing Au Pied De Cochon but I wasn't doing that. Don't have the skills or the resources. So, my wife consulted the good old web and got some recipes. I also consulted Fergus Henderson's "Nose To Tail Eating" but the recipes involved a bit of butchering and since my meat fabricating skills are nonexistent I opted for simpler approaches.
Today I tried what seemed to be the simplest one: trotter soup. Makes all the sense in the world for a hunk of meat that is mostly bone and connective tissue. The instructions said chop the trotter into 4 pieces, rub with soy sauce, cover with water, boil until tender, shred the meat off the bone, add some aromats, simmer for a bit more and finish with a bit of fresh cilantro for garnish. Sounds good, I thought.
Step 1 was a bit of a problem. I tried my chef's knife (still sharp enough to cleanly slice paper as I hone it constantly) a serrated knife and an old meat cleaver. No dice. I considered using a circular power saw but the thought of spraying connective tissue and bone chips all over the kitchen curtains didn't do anything for me. So, I just rubbed the whole thing with soy sauce and tossed it into a pot. 3 hours in and I can finally penetrate the skin with a fork, but the meat is nowhere near what you'd call "tender". So it sits and simmers. And I sit and wait.
Fortunately for me we weren't relying on this for dinner. I'm roasting a whole farm-fresh chicken bought from Klein Farms in Easton PA for dinner and we're having some roasted broccoli and a cheese course with the last of the stuff from Marche Atwater. I figure I may just wind up with a nice portion of pork stock out of this. We'll see.
And then I have 3 more "experiments' to try.
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