The finished headcheese looks great (though I like the gelatinous stuff they mention - I have a jellied veal tongue from Eurostyle in the fridge right now) I also have a bag of pig ears I picked up at Peoria that I need to figure out what to do with...confit sounds complicated, I'd planned to fry them.

I at Peoria Packing you can get the head with the skin on - I wonder what the FDA restrictions are? Feet come with skin almost always. Must be something to do with the removal of the fur?

I think there are two issues.

First, one of the biggest drawbacks to getting local meat that is processed at rural lockers is that you are not necessarily getting, well I do not want to say skilled butchers, that may be unfair to some qualified butchers at these places, I think you are not getting the butchering in the same way. Gwiv, when I gave my locavore talk, mentioned dissatisfaction with local processed pork shoulders. I have seen the same thing with shoulders and many other cuts. I have mentioned this before, but I often do not know exactly what a cut will look like until I unwrap it.

Which gets me to point two. I have never secured a head, nor tried to make headcheese (either myself or as here, by proxy). No one told me to make sure the ears remained or the skin was left on. If I had so known, I would have specifically mentioned those things to the locker, and I am sure, they would have complied. So, a lot of the fault with the state of the head in this particular attempt was from my in-experience, not from it being local.

Yes, local butchering can be a problem. Yet, it helps to know what to ask for too.

Sure, I can see this with my own cow, even though that was sent to a processing plant somewhere...there is a discussion about pork skin somewhere else on the forum, however, that has something to do with the removal of the hair (singeing? scalding?) and I wonder if that process is out of reach for a smaller farmer. After all, some of this is about having the appropriate tools - I suppose I'd try headcheese if I had a large enough pot - how much harder can it be than preparing a tongue or feet?

You can have the head split to make it easier to fit into a smaller pot.

As I mentioned on my blog, one of the real lessons of the head episode was how totally easy it is to make head cheese. Chef Levitt does this thing with the plastic and twisting, which did not seem that hard, but he also emphasised that it could be just as easily done in a loaf pan.

Mhays wrote:I also have a bag of pig ears I picked up at Peoria that I need to figure out what to do with...confit sounds complicated, I'd planned to fry them.

A recent episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives featured an Omaha soul food restaurant that cooked pig ears until tender in a pressure cooker and served them on a bun with mustard and onions. Looked pretty good.

Best,
Michael

The recipe for the testa is at my blog. Having seen the whole process, I think it's surprisingly easy, especially if you use the terrine pan (since the only part requiring real skill is the twirling of the roll you see Rob Levitt do). The places where you'd need a certain kitchen skill are, 1) seasoning for a meat served cold, and 2) being sure you cook the broth down to something that will set as a fairly firm gelatin. And probably skinning the tongue, if you use it. But those aren't big hurdles to overcome.

That said, the thing I had at Mado that really wowed me was the copa, I think that's what I'm going to make myself once I get a good piece of natural pork for it.

Well, if it's anything like the pigs' feet I made this summer, getting the gelatin isn't difficult at all. I didn't realize it at the time, but I made an aspic that resisted a serving spoon without even being aware I had done so. I think I reduced the broth by about 1/3.

Minus the skin, I think there's a lot less gelatin, although I also think what Rob Levitt cooked down in this case wasn't all of the broth he had. Anyway, there's a little bit of skill in eyeballing how much to cook down to how much, but it's not that precise, either.

Well, the resulting charcuterie is beautiful; I can see why the often offal-averse public were eating it up! One benefit of the saran-wrap method is the sausage aesthetic; if I make it at home, I'd go with a loaf pan, unless I plan to serve it to guests.

I think I said this before, but I sometimes comment to kids who react negatively to the offal at Marketplace on Oakton: Do you think the farmers are going to spend all that time and money raising a pig/sheep/cow to throw hunks of it away? Whaddaya think is in bologna, anyway?

In the meantime, Sparky has asked to watch this episode...

Exactly. Anybody who thinks they haven't eaten cow head is in denial about beef tacos at Taco Bell.

Oh, Dad, not pig heads again...



Sky Full of Bacon #5: There Will Be Pork (Pt. 1)

Mike Sula of the Chicago Reader has been writing about the rare mulefoot pig for the last year and a half. (Here's his latest piece.) The Reader enlisted award-winning chef Paul Kahan, of Chicago's Blackbird, to plan an elaborate six-course dinner showcasing the meat of these pigs and the sustainable, humane way in which they're raised. In Part 1 of this epic, two-part podcast, Mike Sula and I visit the farmers and consider the paradox of why eating an endangered pig breed could be the key to saving it. And we talk to several of the chefs about why raising pork humanely and using the whole animal matters to them. (Warning: video does contain vivid footage of meatcutting.) The LTHers who actually attended this dinner will especially want to catch this one, but I think anyone will find it an interesting look at what goes into any meal.

How to watch it:
1) Watch each episode at the Sky Full of Bacon blog (fastest, pretty good HD quality)
2) Watch the new one at its Vimeo page (pretty fast, better HD quality)
3) View or subscribe (FREE!) at iTunes, which I recommend for the highest, full HD quality— and because it will help me keep going to have real live subscribers more than just viewers (not that I don't love them too!)
4) Watch below (but it will be bigger if you follow the links in #1 and #2)

Just finished watching "There will be Pork" Pt. 1.
It just keeps getting better! I dig the lady farmer (Valerie) lighting up what appears to be a cigar.
Those folks are so cool. This venture is a great insight as to what farmers of old used to do.
Thanks, Mike

MikeG,

This SFOB segment was actually “touching,” if I dare say so. Watching Valerie thank the piggies and bid them adieu, I was struck by her genuineness and reasonable, top-of-the-food-chain-but-sensible perspective. And I love the cutting between her coaxing the piggies onto their last ride with a big red bucket and Linda Derrickson as she describes her mission and how she sometimes misses animals that she sends to be processed.

I was always a huge fan of Nagrant’s “Chefs on the Grill,” and I find this kind of inside look at chefs in their working environments to be incredibly valuable. Just to see them work, and talk and fool around makes them seem more real…and that’s a recurring theme with this piece. The animals we eat were once real and living, and that’s a fact that will be harder to ignore, thanks to the efforts of you, Sula and SFOB.

Hammond

Thanks for the comments, guys. I was starting to think about how to add a competition aspect to these to get some morning-after discussion....

The thing that really struck me shooting this one is how thoughtful the chefs and farmers are about all these issues. I see people at the Reader making the predictable comments about how horrifying it is turning lovable smart chess-playing animals into meat, as if that's an original and definitive thought, and I just think, man, the farmers and chefs are so far beyond that basic conversation, how about engaging them where they actually are on all those issues? Certainly they're beyond me, not only in their awareness but in using the power of their positions to make it happen. I admired guys like Kahan, Virant, Jason Hammel, etc. as craftsmen but I really came out of this kind of thinking of them as heroes in a sense-- practical heroes of the omnivore's dilemma.

Hi,

I finally got to watch the pig's head video. Interesting, when I cooked a pig's head I began by brining for a few days. My pig head had its skin intact except for around the eyes, which is a Department of Agriculture regulation. Once cooked and put into molds, it was ready to eat. It appeared from the video, your head cheese was aged for a week. One aspect I will watch again to learn the trick of making the headcheese encased in plastic wrap, then squeezing out the air bubbles.

Regards,

My pig head had its skin intact except for around the eyes, which is a Department of Agriculture regulation.

You will see a little of this, from a not too quease-inducing distance, in the second part of There Will Be Pork. Likewise carving out the ear canals (which oddly enough was the one part that grossed me out, more than the gutting or anything else). Enough to give you an idea of what's going on, but not make you ill.

Once cooked and put into molds, it was ready to eat. It appeared from the video, your head cheese was aged for a week

Not really aged, it just took a week to arrange the tasting party for the end of the video with enough folks to make for a good shoot. It's basically ready once the gelatin has set up, certainly within 24 hours.

Hi,

I never really thought about how the ears were processed before. Do you think you were squeemish in sympathy because how sensitive this area is in your own body?

I saw part 1, though I am really looking forward to part 2 where I expect the processing of the pig will be shown. I am still somewhat surprised how pink the skin was under all that hair. I was expecting a black skinned pig underneath.

Do you recall why the first couple handed over the pigs to Valerie? When we met her at the farm in September, she was not sucking on a cigar. She is really quite colorful as-is. I walked into the pig pen because I thought it being dry, I would not get dirty. I didn't consider how pigs like to rut and wet noses touching dirt become muddy noses. In very little time, my shoes and the edge of my jeans were muddy. I enjoyed watching Valerie distributing the feed, because they really do show up quite eagerly to eat.

When will part 2 be issued?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote: Do you recall why the first couple handed over the pigs to Valerie?

To lighten their load.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I never really thought about how the ears were processed before. Do you think you were squeemish in sympathy because how sensitive this area is in your own body?

Right. I've never been gutted bottom to sternum, so that didn't bother me so much, but sticking something sharp into my ear-- ow!

I saw part 1, though I am really looking forward to part 2 where I expect the processing of the pig will be shown. I am still somewhat surprised how pink the skin was under all that hair. I was expecting a black skinned pig underneath.

The most shocking moment of the slaughter was precisely that. It was like seeing the pig stripped naked in public, a violation.

Do you recall why the first couple handed over the pigs to Valerie?

Basically they decided the pigs were too much work of a different kind than adding another sheep breed, say. They decided to stick with what they already had.

Part 2 will go up Tuesday.

Thanks for the reminder that I hadn't watched this yet - funny, a friend mentioned it today (as I was dropping Sparky off for a playdate) I, too, am very interested in the slaughter part. I wonder how many cultures in the world are as removed from their food as ours is: the other day at Mayflower Market, I noticed that the packaged raw chickens still had their heads on - I'd never seen that before. I pointed it out to Sparky, who looked in interest and shrugged (he's getting pretty used to this kind of stuff, though I think I'm not going to show him this episode, even though I made a point with the Lake County Fair/Pig Roast, there's still some distance I don't think he's ready to cross.)

I realized that I didn't even really have a sense of how the head is attached to the chicken: a naked, raw chicken is almost completely indistinguishable from a living one. Not so with the pigs - it's a little disconcerting to see Paul Kahan (I think? Hard to keep track of which was which) casually whacking the head off with a cleaver - in much the same way that I butterfly a chicken.

At Peoria Packing, I couldn't resist a bag of pig's ears, but I haven't figured out what to do with them yet. I didn't realize just how sturdy the cartilage is in there - I was thinking they'd be mostly skin and would fry up nicely. I'm now thinking they're another good source of gelatinous stock...

"We get a lot of high schoolers coming through here."



Sky Full of Bacon #6: There Will Be Pork (Pt. 2)

In part 2 of this epic podcast saga, Mike Sula and I are joined by chef Jason Hammel of Lula Cafe as we go to the rural slaughterhouse to watch and learn how mulefoot pigs become mulefoot pork. Meanwhile, the chefs prepare for the big night and we hear from Paul Kahan and others just why supporting and promoting good pork is something they believe in.

How to watch it:
1) Watch each episode at the Sky Full of Bacon blog (fastest, pretty good HD quality)
2) Watch the new one at its Vimeo page (pretty fast, better HD quality)
3) View or subscribe (FREE!) at iTunes, which I recommend for the highest, full HD quality— and because it will help me keep going to have real live subscribers more than just viewers (not that I don't love them too!)
4) Watch below (but it will be bigger if you follow the links in #1 and #2)

Mike,

The pigs straight out the de-hairing machine looked ghostly white. They seemed to look pinker in Part 1 when they had time to cool off or maybe that was the ambient lighting?

You covered a very sensitive moment, very sensitively: when the pig went from life to harvest.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Mike,

The pigs straight out the de-hairing machine looked ghostly white. They seemed to look pinker in Part 1 when they had time to cool off or maybe that was the ambient lighting?

You covered a very sensitive moment, very sensitively: when the pig went from life to harvest.

Regards,

I watched this killer podcast tonight and I must say, I think it's good for carnivores to confront the fact that animals must perish for their (our) pleasure, but this podcast is about as close as I want to come to that confrontation. I empathized (as much as I could) with the somewhat shaken Jason Hammel.

David Hammond wrote: I think it's good for carnivores to confront the fact that animals must perish for their (our) pleasure

While we certainly are a community where our food is pleasure. Many people consider eating a necessity to living and derive very little pleasure from it. I doubt a lion attacking gazelle is thinking pleasure, it is thinking food and survival or at least addressing that gnawing pain in his stomach and the pleading hungry eyes of his pack.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:

David Hammond wrote: I think it's good for carnivores to confront the fact that animals must perish for their (our) pleasure

While we certainly are a community where our food is pleasure. Many people consider eating a necessity to living and derive very little pleasure from it. I doubt a lion attacking gazelle is thinking pleasure, it is thinking food and survival or at least addressing that gnawing pain in his stomach and the pleading hungry eyes of his pack.

Regards,

As a long time pet owner (maybe not the perfect analogy), I've seen plenty of pleasure. Nothing like a good bone, or a waste paper basket filled with dirty tissues. No one's happier than Moe when he finds himself a mouse.

Not to belittle, however, the fact that there are still many who suffer from hunger.

Cathy2 wrote:

David Hammond wrote: I think it's good for carnivores to confront the fact that animals must perish for their (our) pleasure

While we certainly are a community where our food is pleasure. Many people consider eating a necessity to living and derive very little pleasure from it. I doubt a lion attacking gazelle is thinking pleasure, it is thinking food and survival or at least addressing that gnawing pain in his stomach and the pleading hungry eyes of his pack.

Regards,

Yes, I know there is hunger and suffering in the world.

My point is that we do face the "omnivore's dilemma," we -- you, me, everyone reading this post -- can eat pretty much whatever we want, and there are alternatives to animal protein. We keep eating meat because we like the taste: it gives us pleasure.

It seems like those for whom eating meat is a necessity (as in the only option) are probably closest to the animal; we who eat meat because we want to are probably farthest from the animal and most in need of a reality face-off.

David Hammond wrote:We keep eating meat because we like the taste: it gives us pleasure.

My brother-in-law (BIL) grew up in India as a cultural and practicing vegetarian. He had an American room mate who was a carnivore who evolved into being a vegetarian. This guy often purchased faux meat products, which taste (almost) like chicken, steak or hamburger. My BIL finally tried meat because his curiosity was ignited by these faux meats. BIL is now a carnivore, a fact he does not disclose to his family.

I asked him what was difference to him personally between eating meat with a meal as opposed to his vegetarian diet. When he eats meat, he can go longer between meals before feeling hungry. When he eats a vegetarian meal, he is looking for food in shorter and more regular intervals. Clearly the complex proteins take longer to digest, the energy provided is spread over a longer time. Our eating meat is not just an issue of pleasure.

Your use of the word 'pleasure' strikes me as trivializing an important element in our diet. As if this was something optional and frivolous to pursue. Akin to Marie Antoinette suggesting to the hungry hoards, "Let them eat cake!" A statement that appears to be myth than rather than fact.

Regards,

Some of the (predictable) vegetarian responses to Sula's story (and by extension the videos) seem to contain within them the notion that wanting fine dining is a decadent and vaguely disreputable habit, somewhere between hanging out at racetracks and BDSM in terms of things that deserve a sort of Puritan scowl even if they're not illegal. Yet.

I of course see it the exact opposite way-- if you only see food as mere fuel, it is much like seeing art as mere wallpaper or nature as merely a place to drive through on your way to a destination. What makes us human is taking the basic animal urges of survival, and aestheticizing or intellectualizing them into something artful and sublime. If you don't get that, I mean really get it on a deep level, and find something in this world that you respond to in that way, you're just another beast marking time on planet Earth, as far as I'm concerned. And being that is the real immorality.

Now back to scrubbing the whip marks off my Kandinsky.

Mike "À Rebours" G

I watched the latest podcast this morning, and first want to congratulate Mike for telling a mesmerizing story that I won't soon forget.

This is an emotional issue, and I expect that discussions among those who watch the podcast will embody the wide array of emotions people feel about food, animal treatment, etc. I don't think there's a right or wrong way to feel here, and I respect all views on matters like these. What I do think is very wrong is to dig one's head in the sand and ignore what really goes into making our food, and Mike's podcast helps us avoid that. Thank you!

Cathy2 wrote:
I asked him what was difference to him personally between eating meat with a meal as opposed to his vegetarian diet. When he eats meat, he can go longer between meals before feeling hungry. When he eats a vegetarian meal, he is looking for food in shorter and more regular intervals. Clearly the complex proteins take longer to digest, the energy provided is spread over a longer time. Our eating meat is not just an issue of pleasure.

Your use of the word 'pleasure' strikes me as trivializing an important element in our diet. As if this was something optional and frivolous to pursue. Akin to Marie Antoinette suggesting to the hungry hoards, "Let them eat cake!" A statement that appears to be myth than rather than fact.

Regards,

Because the BIL doesn't want to be bothered eating so often, he eats meat so he can go for "longer intervals." That's a choice. Meat is an "important element" in my diet because I like it and eat it; it doesn't need to be in my diet. I want it there. Just like your BIL.

The hungry hoards you mention, incidentally, are probably those who hardly ever eat meat, so the analogy is odd (surprisingly, perhaps, I've never compared myself to Marie Antoinette.)