Monday 13 August 2012

Shallow Grave Cooking

Warning - this blog contains a picture of a severed pig's head (although it's not as bad as I've made that sound).

Spare the axe spoil the child
OK, this is going to get grisly.  For those of a weak or sensitive constitution I'm going to begin with the good stuff.  The picture below is pure porn.  Brawn porn.

And this little piggy went all wobbly
The problem is that to get to that deliciousness you have to start with this 


It all began in those far off, crisp and cold days that history will record as ‘just before Christmas’ when we acquired a pig at a party.  I want to make it absolutely clear that this is not a countryside version of throwing car keys into a bowl.  It was a perfectly normal and straightforward party celebrating the festive season where you take a bottle of wine and bring home some livestock. 

So, we tended and fed the pigs until the beginning of April and now, after some slightly more brutal ‘tending’ by the butcher, have a freezer full of sausages, bacon, chops, offal, trotters, roasting joints and, as you can see, the head.  The head I was particularly keen on getting because stock from a pig's head opens up a world of possiblities.

My one note of caution surrounding the making of a batch of pigs' head stock is to make sure you have a pan big enough to take the head.  Even though the head was split it was still a little too big for my pans and so it required a bit more *ahem* trimming.  Now the thing about the head of a mammal is that it is full of bone and teeth and so cutting it is a little bit tricky.  My knives were inadequate so I took to the shed and had my pick of tools.  I narrowed the choice down to an axe, a small saw and the hedge trimmers before settling on the axe ( a wise move I think).

My other problem was that while I was making the stock I was also looking after my kids on a sunny, summer afternoon.  Now, whilst I want my children to be aware of the realities of what goes into a plate of meat, I also recognise that the image of their father smashing an axe through a pig's jaw could result in a good deal of therapy later in life.  

So, to recap.  

1. Pig's head, carrots, celery, onion, bay leaf, peppercorns and salt boiled together for a couple of hours make a delicious stock for soup and the perfect base for brawn.

2. On balance, a paddling pool is a better way for a six year old to spend the afternoon than being the Ewan McGregor to your Christopher Ecclestone (Pig = Keith Allen in the Shallow Grave metaphor BTW)



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