Oink, oink! Le pied de cochon is French for...

...pig's trotters, of course!

It's startling how our tastes change as we age.

As a college student in Washington, D.C., in the 1980's, many a late night ended eating at a mediocre 24-hour French bistro in Georgetown called "Au Pied de Cochon." The name paid homage to the famous {and presumably better} bistro in Paris. The red walls of the Georgetown bistro colorfully depicted a mad chef waving a cleaver whilst he first chases then eventually catches a squealing pig, triumphantly grabbing him by the foot. At that time, the thought of actually ordering the namesake pig's feet never so much as crossed my mind, regardless of the number of drinks that preceded my visit there. Rarely did my 3 am order stray from the comfortable oasis of eggs benedict and French fries.

Fast forward to tonight. In the ensuing 20 years, I have apparently become that mad chef.

I now not only sample odd bits like pig's trotters, tails, ears, snouts, bellies, and what not, I actually relish and even crave them. So I figured it was about time that I learn to properly cook some of these parts, especially as this Tuesday the 17th is the feast day of San Antonio Abate, Patron Saint of Pigs and Butchers {pictured left}. In celebration of this event, Diva in Italy and Kate in Gascony created Some Pig Blogging Weekend, an event I could hardly miss!

These off cuts, innards, and extremities are the sardines of the meat world. We cooks, particularly in America, are often guilty of only paying attention to the sexier cuts of meat. Go to any mid-scale restaurant in San Francisco, for example, and you'll invariably find a menu full of roasted half chickens, flatiron steaks, pork loin chops, braised lamb shanks, and short ribs. I, for one, have had enough!

Though all of the kitchens I have worked in have received at least 3 stars from the local critic, I have not often been afforded the opportunity to work with these lesser used parts of the animal. Like so many American cooks, I have had to look further afield for expert advice on how to cook these forgotten cuts. My main guide is, of course, the gifted Fergus Henderson, the author of The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating and chef/proprietor of St. John, his restaurant outside of London. I also look to other British food writers, Anissa Helou and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a few Spanish cooks, and some intrepid Americans, including Paula Wolfert, Anthony Bourdain and Thomas Keller.

For my first attempt at cooking pig's trotters, I trusted this last chef, Mr. Keller {who I'll call TK, just for fun}. I used his recipe from the book/Yountville bistro, Bouchon. I'd share it with you, but I admittedly don't yet own the book. I just read the recipe in a bookstore and {hopefully} committed it to memory.

If you've never had pig's trotters before, there is one adjective that perfectly describes them: unctuous. Unctuous is not a word I use often, but it is perfectly apt here. Like so many innards and off cuts, they are all about texture and mouth feel. The part that you eat is essentially gelatin with a little bit of fat. To provide a crisp textural contrast, TK has you bread and pan fry the boneless disks of pork trotter.

For those of you who are not squeamish, after the jump I've included pictures and descriptions which illustrate my adventures cooking this succulent, wonderfully sticky and unctuous cut of the pig.

I bought the trotters from Potter Family Farms, a great source at San Francisco's Ferry Plaza Farmers Market for free-range, pasture fed pork, beef and lamb. I had no idea what I was going to cook for Pig Blogging Weekend until I asked the butcher.

"So, what sort of interesting cuts of pork do you have?" I inquired. First he showed me some pork shoulder chops.

"No, I'm looking for something more interesting, like ears or snout."

His eyes lit up. "We don't have much now, because we haven't slaughtered a pig in a while. Come back after Thursday and we'll have everything. Here's what we do have." He pulled out a tail and a pair of trotters. I opted for the trotters. They weighed about 2.5 pounds total and came from the smaller front feet of the pig.

Once home, I plopped the trotters in a pot of cold water, brought it to a simmer and blanched the feet for 5 minutes. I tossed out this water, washed the pot and refilled it with clean water. The trotters went back in with a few carrots, a leek, an onion, some cloves of garlic, thyme, bay leaves, a few peppercorns, and a tablespoon of salt.

I then brought the water up to a simmer and slowly cooked the trotters for 3 hours, until the skin and meat became tender. I lifted my prize trotters out of their bath and set them on my cutting board. The shrunken flesh and protruding bones had torn apart the cooked trotters, looking like a bomb had gone off. I reserved the broth, now infused with ample gelatin and pork flavor, for some future date when I will cook what will surely be the best pot of beans or lentils ever.

I then painstakingly removed all the bones, tendons, gristly bits and harder pieces of skin from the feet. I ended up with just 6 ounces of usable meat and gelatin. I learned why TK had recommended buying the larger rear trotters, which often come with part of the meaty shank still attached. They yield about 50% more meat than the front ones. The recipe called for dicing up enough skin to equal half of the amount of "meat" I had. So my total yield from 2 trotters was just 9 ounces.

I combined the trotter bits with a splash of the cooking liquid, 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, some diced shallots that I had sautéed in butter, salt and pepper. Veering from the recipe a bit, a filled 2 greased ring molds about the size of tuna cans with the mixture, covered them, topped them with heavy jars and refrigerated them overnight.

Tonight, I preheated the oven to 350˚F (175˚C), then floured each side of the "pucks." Next, I smeared on a bit of mustard and then pressed on some breadcrumbs. I fried them in a couple of tablespoons of oil until golden and roasted them in the oven until they were heated through and wobbly, about 10 minutes total.

I served my trotters with a sauce gribiche, a chunky salsa of minced parsley, capers, cornichons, shallots, hard-boiled egg, vinegar and olive oil. A salad of bitter dandelion and radicchio tossed in sharp mustard vinaigrette provided the perfect counterpoint to the rich pig's trotters. The glass of properly chilled 2003 Château Thivin from Côte de Brouilly {Beaujolais} was a tasty accompaniment to this decadently unctuous supper.

Food|and Drink|Recipes|Meat|Pork|Pig Blogging Weekend|San Francisco

Comments

[Kalyn]

This was so fun to read. You're so creative in these events. I've been wanting to get Bouchon but my cookbook budget has been a bit overextended recently! When I was a kid my dad would cook pickled pigs feet and all we kids found them quite disgusting.

[Kate]

STOP! STOP! How can I possibly still be hungry for yet more pig's trotters? I am posting the entries to the Some Pig blogging weekend, reheating my own leftovers from last night (FH's chicken & trotters)and you still made me hungry for your version. Merci Brett for taking the challenge. Be blessed tomorrow!

[Magictofu]

This is an awesome post! The process is a bit too complicated for a weekday meal but I love reading people's adventures with lesser know cuts and techniques. The only pig trotters I tried were the chinese version of it with all the bones... very messy... you feel like a cave man when eating them (which is not always a bad thing).

[sam]

i LOVE that you rread the recipe in a bookshop and remembered it. I did somethig similar with a Nigel Slater recipe and it didnt turn out as well as it was meant to in my mind's eye.

Good job Brett - i love learning stuff from you!

[Diva]

I love the hockey puck shape.
I will post my foot cheese, as opposed to head cheese, I made with the same method!

Thanks for coming to our pork party!
Diva

[cookiecrumb]

"The sardines of the meat world."
SNAP!
(and again with the gribiche... 'nother SNAP!)
The pucks look beautiful.

[Brett]

Kalyn, when I searched the internet for pig's feet recipes, most of them were for the Southern style pickled variety. I've not yet tried the pickled style myself.

Kate, I was just looking over that recipe for chicken and pig's trotters. Looks scrumptious! I wish you blessings today, too.

Magictofu, I considered serving the trotters whole, but I think my wife would've left me if I plunked down a whole pig's foot and said, as so many annoying waiters seem fond of saying, "Enjoy!"

Sam, thank you for the compliment. You're quite the teacher yourself. Can't wait to attempt pork rillettes.

Diva, great cooks' minds think alike! I'd love to see people's reactions if I put the phrase "foot cheese" on a menu in the US! Or better yet, ask the servers to try to sell it verbally as a special. Very fun!

[Brett]

Cookiecrumb, you snuck in while I was responding to other people's comments. I'm glad you enjoyed my analogy and my pucks.

[melissa_cookingdiva]

It looks delicious Brett! I love pork :)

[Elise]

Hi Brett - My parents often talk about pig feet, though usually the pickled sort. Apparently it was pretty normal when they were growing up. I've never come close to eating it. Yet. :-) Thanks for sharing.

[Magictofu]

Hi Brett, I could not help but copy your recipe... or at least to make my own version. You can find it
here.

Thanks for sharing your experiment with us... it is very inspiring.

Cheers

[Robin]

Hey Brett;

Came across this through Google.

Thanks! for putting this together. We just got about two dozen trotters delivered at work, and were trying to come up with a way to sell them (without pickiling them :) ). This works great, and will look fantastic! Appreciated.

[Jim Long]

Ah yes, "Au Pied de Cochon", although third rate, it was reliable, especially in a 3am beer fueled haze.

Loves me some trotters! This undertaking is far beyond my ability, but is inspiring!

[Walter Jeffries]

Thanks for the walk through, Brett. Pigs feet are unfortunately normally thrown away at the butchers. The waste a huge amount of good food including the feet and a lot of ones. sad. We raise pastured pigs so I fortunately have a supply.
Cheers,

-Walter
in Vermont

[Andy]

Thanks for the detailed description and photos. I made my first pig's trotters last night (for Fergus Henderson's "Jellied Tripe"), but was unsure what parts to save when the boiled trotters reach that "exploded" stage.

[Patricia L. Irving]

Was looking for a recipe for pigs feet cooked 'hot' as opposed to the way I learned to cook it from childhood from my parents. My father was from Trinidad, and mother form Barbados. They pickled their pigs feet (and not with ugh vinegar, they used tons of lemons! I LOVED them. But in the early 1970's, I dated James Earl Jones for about 20 minutes and he was some eater. He loved and ate EVERYTHING. When I asked him if he liked pigs feet (pickled of course) he roared at me NO NO NO, hot, southern style. And so he showed me how and it was quite simple. Pigs feet started as yours were, to clean them well, and then cooked the second time with onions, salt and pepper, celery, garlic powder, hot sauce!!! and lots of it and some vinegar also. Yuck. But let me tell you, this little West Indian chile LOVED them as much as Jimmy did and .....haven't cooked them since! I am cooking a pot of them now. HOT. And my parents are rolling over in their graves I bet! Pat Irving...In Martha's Vineyard, MA