By Iron Chef Leftovers
…and this little piggy came home, with me…
Thanks to the folks at Sea Breeze Farm, I was able to try something that I have always wanted to – roast a pig’s head. This is more of the FYI post rather than the recipe, since that is a much more involved writing process, so I will post the actual details of that later. They were kind enough to split it in half, leave the skin on (which is not easy to find) and even gave me the tongue, which I am looking forward to using at a later date. This meat itself was delicious and was probably one of the 5 best pork dishes I have eaten.
A few things I learned from doing this:
- If the food is looking at me, I need to name it, so I named it Pig after the character from Pearls Before Swine (real original, I know).
- A blowtorch is not the best way to remove any remaining hairs from the pig – buy a disposable razor.
- I am not used to roasting pieces of meat that are terribly uneven and I need to work on the technique to better suit my oven.
- When you don’t have a roasting pan that will fit something properly, heavy duty foil wrap and a baking sheet work really well.
- Trying to carve a pig’s head with a knife is an interesting proposition – you really need to get a feel for where the bones are.
- It is easier to tear the meat off the head rather than carving it – there is meat in places that you will never be able to get to with a knife.
- Glazed pork skin has the consistency of rock candy and is sweet, salty, crunchy and fatty – basically the best thing you will ever eat.
- The meat and fat under glazed pork skin remains volcanic for long periods of time.
- A friend suggests that half a pig’s head will feed 2-3 people for 6 lbs.; mine was just over 7 lbs. and I could have fed at least 5-6.
- There is less meat than you would expect, but there is a healthy amount of fat and fat makes you fuller quicker, so you eat less than you do with lean meats.
- The snout and ears are still two of my favorites, but there is something special about eating the jowl and cheek.
More info and the happy pictures after the jump.
FlatbreadGarden 