Jen and Holly pulled some pig’s feet out of the freezer. Listen to find out how they put those feet in their mouths.
TROTTERS - Episode 2 (Season 1) A Freezer Full Of Meat Podcast
If you’re not in a position to listen, here’s our episode highlights and written commentary:
Pig’s feet make great soup broth. Feet from any animal is great in the soup pot.
Trotters can be more so much more than soup base. Try braising them!
Trotters contain lots of collagen, so are very sticky, but collagen also gives structure and yield a pleasantly chewy bite when eaten cold.
Trotters prepared this way can have the skin removed, or kept on. Don’t let your eye deceive you. It is not too unctuous with the skin left on, and you’re eating more of the animal.
Trotters were packed in two, because we butchered one pig half at a time (nose to tail), containing a front and back trotter. Splitting the meat this way two sets of the same cuts from one animal.
There are differences between the two trotters. Jen found that the front trotter was smaller, but meatier, than the hind trotter, which had more tendon than meat. The pigs were hung from the Achilles tendon on the hind leg. Both seem to contain a good amount of collagen, not much fat.
Surprising that not more pig’s trotters are eaten, given how much pork is processed.
Collagen-rich broth is now all the rage, and the trotter yields an enormous amount collagen.
Feet are seen as gross because they are in the muck.
They are difficult to clean. Not so much the pad at the bottom of the foot, or the nails, but rather scraping away all of the burnt hair from the furry feet. The burnt hair residue gives off flavors (we flamed the hair off).
Our pig breed (Tamworth) had a thick coat of brown fur, so were well adapted to cold weather.
Little bits of hair might end up in the broth, but we don’t care! We felt so close to the pigs that we didn’t mind if we ate some of its hair.
Feet can be well-cleaned with a used toothbrush.
Before brining the trotter, give it a quick look over and, flame excess hair if necessary, then, using a very sharp knife or razorblade, scrape the skin to remove last bits of burn residue and hair. Pouring hot water on them while scraping and cleaning helps.
The trotters were then brined. Use more salt than you think, about 1.5 cups salt to 1 gallon of water. The brine remove impurities, tenderizes, and alter the proteins.
Trotters are then blanched. Put trotters in cold water, bring to a boil. As it comes to the boil, skim the scum. Continue to simmer for a few minutes (3-4 minutes).
Discard the blanching water, add fresh water and aromatics (onion, leek garlic, chili, ginger, star anise…) and let it simmer for 3-4 hours, or until fork tender or falling off the bone. Can be eaten at this point.
Final stage is to braise the trotter (with skin and bones, or just the meat) in a sauce, until thick and coated.
You can experience the pleasure of sucking on the nails and the bones, getting at all the bits and connecting to simpler times. The perfect winter meal!
The simmering liquid yields a delicious, collagen and gelatin rich broth that can be drunk as is, or used as a base for building a soup.
This is a meal full of noises and finger linking, in contrast to the polite meals we are used to.
Abattoirs may not be able to give all of the cuts back, especially the feet.
If you have them, the are an overlooked, underappreciated inexpensive, nutrient-rich cut.
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