Brawn Pork Pies (or what to do with a pigs head)

I made brawn a little while ago, while it was pretty tasty, I wasn't convinced we were going to eat it as it is a bit firm for spreading on bread - perhaps in the summer with salad. It reminded me a little of pork pie meat, so I thought I would try making this head in to 'brawn pork pies' which would be excellent snack and lunch food.

For the filling I started the same as making brawn and halved the head (they are very small, you need to quarter a full sized head) and boiled for 3 hours until the the meat was falling off the bone. I then diced all the meat and most of the skin and fat - I kept the skin and fat I didn't use for dog treats. I seasoned the mixture with some salt, nutmeg and white pepper and mixed in some sundried tomatoes and dried apricots. I left the mixture in the fridge until cold and set. I then minced it on the course setting and added a bit of fresh minced pork (probably about 1 part fresh pork to 6 parts brawn).

I made pork pie pastry from one of our cookery books (there are lots on the internet) and used the filling as instructed in the recipe.

I reduced some of the gelatin/stock from boiling the heads and when the pies were cooked I poured some of it in to the holes on top. All the pies seem to have a little hole somewhere so I didn't manage to fill them up so there was jelly on top of the meat, but it did add a lot of flavour.

They came out really really delicious. I was very impressed, I think next time I will try without the fresh pork, I just thought they might need it for flavour and texture.

I made some mini ones too which are good too, I used a muffin tin which was a handy hint I saw on the internet somewhere... I put a bit too much meat in so the tops got pushed off during cooking, but they sank back on as they cooled cooled.

Making Pork Scratchings

I have always thought that doing these at top temperature was the correct way, but I have never really had a successful batch - it often was starting to burn before it was anywhere near crispy. A friend gave us some very delicious ones made at 200C. I was then making lard which I did at 90C and found that the skin still started to crackle.

I had a fair bit of skin to experiment with as I was processing the pig. My conclusion is that you should soak the skin in salt water for a little while (30 mins perhaps) and then put in a single layer on a ceramic dish (for some reason cooks better than on metal) and cook at 180C until done - which is when they are a golden brown colour and hard or very nearly hard all over, slight soft bits will still set hard and crispy. 

Keeps well in an air tight tin.

Honey roast ham

Wet salt the ham (or buy one)

If it has been heavily salted soak in cool water for a few hours. We salted our own, not to strongly so sidn't bother soaking. You can tell how saltly it is by putting your tongue on it, if too salty soak, otherwise proceed.

Put the ham in a covered roasting dish and cook in a 180C oven for 20mins per 500g. 

Remove from the oven and then cut the skin off the ham with a sharp knife leaving as much fat on as possible. 

Slash through the fat left on the ham in a cross hatch pattern with a couple of cm between the cuts. A pattern of squares is created, Push a clove in to the each square. Mix 2 tsp of honey with 1 tsp of mustard (french, english, you chose) - this was sufficient for 1kg ham, for bigger ham use same proportions but more of each.

Increase oven temperature to 200C amd cook for a further 30 mins or until the fat is well browned. Bast half way through.

Serve with creamed parsnip and green veg. Or it will be delicious with anything really!

Making bacon

While I was on a pig processing frenzy I made bacon from some belly we have in the freezer from our pigs.

Quite a few bacon recipes have the meat in a large amount of salt, the bacon done like this will keep well, but it will also be very salty. This recipe uses 3% of the weight of the meat which looks like an unlikely small anount of salt, this bacon will come out similar in saltiness to bacon you buy from the butcher.

3kg pork belly (in a number of pieces, I did 1kg pieces)

90g salt

50g brown sugar

2 tsp white pepper

6 cloves

Pinch of rosemary

Rub the salt mix in to the pork and put the pieces stacked in a large bag.

Leave in the fridge for 5 days, each day restack and slosh the liquid around so each one has a go sitting in the liquid that forms.

Hang overnight and then slice and freeze (or just eat the lot!)

I also made bacon from the back of the mini pig and a little bit from the belly. The belly was too skinny really but the back stuff was good.

Making Lard

You should use back fat for this. If you are patient and heat slowly the lard is whiter.

Mince on the course setting and put in to a ceramic dish in to an oven at 90°C

It will take several hours for all the fat to come out, pour it off from time to time. The bits of fat will slowly brown and at some point I start pouring off in to a second bowl so I have some really white and some a bit more yellow. When it cools and sets it is paler than it looks as you pour it off.

One top one of these are bits cooking in a metal tin and the bottom is ones cooking in a ceramic tin. I was interested to see the marked difference in how fast they cooked. The little bits left over are very tasty with a bit of salt on.

The nice white stuff and the later slightly yellower stuff

Black Pudding Recipe (in skins this time)

b2l pigs blood

500g onions (finely chopped)

250g back fat (finely chopped)

200g lard or olive oil

5tsp salt

4 cloves

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp cayenne pepper (or paprika if you don't want spicy)

2tsp ginger

120g pearl barley (or wheat)

Gently fry the onions with the cloves until soft but not brown

Put the blood in a largish bowl (messy if it slops over when you stir!) and mix in all the other ingredients (except the cloves which you should remove from the onions)

Put in to large sausage skins (I used the larger bit of pigs intestines same as I used for saucisson - these come out wider though as the saucisson shrinks as it dries). I did this by tying one end with string and then using a funnel and ladle to fill. I did it in a bowl in case the skin burst while filling - which one did. I then slid if the funnel tied the other end with string - possibly all easier with 2 people.

Cook by gently lowering in to 80°C water in a large pan. 

Cook for about 40 minutes or until when you stick a pin in it doesn't flow red. Maintain the temperature at around 80°C throughout. It is a good idea to mix around before putting in to the water otherwise the fat rises to the top (see bottom photo)

I should have mixed it around before boiling

Butchering a Mini Pig

We swaped a yet-to-be-born female ouessant for a vietnemese pot bellied pig carcus. It was a great opportunity for the first time butchering a pig, as they are about the size of the bigger lambs, so it is easier to handle - and easier to keep the bits you are not working on cool.

I cut it up in quite a simple way. Each half was cut in to three. The front part - front leg and shoulder was boned out for sausages, the middle part was boned and made in to bacon (back and belly) and a tiny roast. The rear part - back legs - was salted, one wet cured for honey roast ham, and the other dry cured for a mini dried ham. The head I made in to brawn pork pies.

All this pork processing also inspired me to do something with some bits from our pigs that are still waiting patiently in the freezer. I put on some belly to become bacon and made lard from some of the backfat (needed for the pork pie pastry) as well as adding some more meat and fat in to the sausages (the mini pig was a bit skinny so it was useful to have some extra fat hanging around)

No it didn't have two heads!