Been looking to improve my hog's head cheese recipe. The last time I made it I used pork butt and packaged gelatin as the binder. This time I decided to use the natural gelatin in trotters.
10.6 lbs of fresh whole picnic
4.8 lbs of split trotters
Barely cover the meat and trotters with water. Season with chopped onion, salt, peppercorns, flaked red pepper and bell pepper. Simmer till fall off the bone tender, about 3 hours. Remove the meat from the broth and continue to cook the broth until reduced to about 2/3 original in volume. The broth will feel very sticky when the gelatin has been extracted Once reduced strain and reserve all broth
Most recipes say to run the meat through a food processor, I decided to pull and chop by hand to ensure a decent consistency. Include all fat, skin and meat pulled from the bone but discard some of the soft fat from the picnic.
Remove about 3 cups of the broth and return to the stove with low heat. For this amount of meat I chopped 2 bunches of green onions, additional pepper flakes, two small bell peppers, couple of tablespoons of thyme and dried parsley. Simmer till vegetables are tender
The broth
Combine the chopped meat and cooked vegetables. This ensures that the meat is properly soaked in the broth and the vegetables are evenly distributed. This is a good time to check for final seasonings.
Transfer the meat, vegetable, broth mixture to shallow pans and ladle in extra broth to cover the meat. There should be enough liquid that the meat is fully covered but not drowning in the broth
This pan has a bit extra pepper flakes
After a couple hours in the fridge the hog's head cheese is fully set and ready to serve. I like it with a bit of yellow or brown mustard on crackers with a couple of cold beers and a football game!
The hog's head cheese set perfectly. If I where doing it just for myself I would add a good bit more salt and hot pepper but that's easy enough to adjust on the plate.
I called around and was able to find hog's heads at a local butcher. They would have to be ordered and then cleaned. Eyes, ears and neural tissue would have to be removed before boiling. When I do the demo at this years SELA gathering I'll probably use the head. Trotters are available at most better grocers.
Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, I am certainly enjoying the results1
Al
10.6 lbs of fresh whole picnic
4.8 lbs of split trotters
Barely cover the meat and trotters with water. Season with chopped onion, salt, peppercorns, flaked red pepper and bell pepper. Simmer till fall off the bone tender, about 3 hours. Remove the meat from the broth and continue to cook the broth until reduced to about 2/3 original in volume. The broth will feel very sticky when the gelatin has been extracted Once reduced strain and reserve all broth
Most recipes say to run the meat through a food processor, I decided to pull and chop by hand to ensure a decent consistency. Include all fat, skin and meat pulled from the bone but discard some of the soft fat from the picnic.
Remove about 3 cups of the broth and return to the stove with low heat. For this amount of meat I chopped 2 bunches of green onions, additional pepper flakes, two small bell peppers, couple of tablespoons of thyme and dried parsley. Simmer till vegetables are tender
The broth
Combine the chopped meat and cooked vegetables. This ensures that the meat is properly soaked in the broth and the vegetables are evenly distributed. This is a good time to check for final seasonings.
Transfer the meat, vegetable, broth mixture to shallow pans and ladle in extra broth to cover the meat. There should be enough liquid that the meat is fully covered but not drowning in the broth
This pan has a bit extra pepper flakes
After a couple hours in the fridge the hog's head cheese is fully set and ready to serve. I like it with a bit of yellow or brown mustard on crackers with a couple of cold beers and a football game!
The hog's head cheese set perfectly. If I where doing it just for myself I would add a good bit more salt and hot pepper but that's easy enough to adjust on the plate.
I called around and was able to find hog's heads at a local butcher. They would have to be ordered and then cleaned. Eyes, ears and neural tissue would have to be removed before boiling. When I do the demo at this years SELA gathering I'll probably use the head. Trotters are available at most better grocers.
Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, I am certainly enjoying the results1
Al
