Pigs head roasted.

[moikel]

I have seen 2 different guys do a roasted pigs head on TV  here.

You start by getting a whole head cut down the middle,then its a matter of working out your spices & liquids . Low & slow keep it moist,foil cover for the ear,hot oven at the end to crisp the skin.

You only cook one half cut side down. 

The most recent TV effort was a chef/small acreage farmer who cooked it to serve to the pig breeder who sold him his pigs . Looked like a biggish meal for 2

.

I think I will lay it on a bed of root veg,make up liquids with apple cider, white wine,chicken stock lots of garlic & bits,serve it on bitter greens to cut the fat.

Butchers daughter laid low with flu so currently oblivious to unfolding plan . 

Dont know how many plates you get out of half a head off a decent size pig.Also not sure whether its a knife & fork deal.

Lot of good looking meat in the jowl & where the neck joins.Well I think its good looking not sure what sort of reception its going to get

 Just need to find a pigs head ,Chinatown the best place to start.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

I'm in! My fiancée, she out! Can't wait to see what you come up with Mick. I always wondered what happens with the head when guys do whole pig roasts.

 

[snorkelinggirl]

Sounds great!  A lot of good meat and fun different textures with a pig's head.  There is a suprising amount of meat located in funny spots like around the eyes.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes out for you! 

You probably know this already, but if the pig head you get comes with the jowls intact, you can remove those and prepare them separately if you want (to make cured and air-dried guanciale, or cured and smoked jowl bacon).  My husband actually prefers jowl over belly because it is richer-tasting and the fat cooks up crispier.

Have fun!  Looking forward to seeing more of your post!

Clarissa

 

[turnandburn]

I'm in! My fiancée, she out! Can't wait to see what you come up with Mick. I always wondered what happens with the head when guys do whole pig roasts.

DS it ends up on a table with ppl like me picking at it with a corn tortilla! and growling at others...lol.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

DS it ends up on a table with ppl like me picking at it with a corn tortilla! and growling at others...lol.

 

[smokinhusker]

I hope you find one cause this will be an interesting cook. I grew up on a farm and we slaughtered our own hogs, beef etc. Head is good and has lots of meat in odd places like Clarissa said. Fried pork brains and eggs was one of my favs growing up!

Rock brings home packages of jowl (they call them pork cutlets) cause we can't get them here. I flour, fry in butter and yummy!

 

[mr t 59874]

It all sounds good to me.

This was my last one.

Whole Rotisserie Hog + Cooks Reward - Q/view

Tom

 

[dls1]

Mick - Sounds like you have a worthy experiment going here. Look forward to following the thread.

When I first saw your post it reminded me of a dish I had at a party hosted by a very talented chef friend of mine a number of years ago. When the invitation arrived it stated that the featured item would be "Ballontine de Porc avec Sauce Gribeche". My wife and daughter asked what that might be and told them that it was probably a large piece of deboned pork, flattened , covered with other meat such as sausage, then rolled up and poached or roasted. 

I bumped into him a few days before the party, after swearing me to secrecy, told me the ballontine was adapted from a Thomas Keller recipe, and what it actually was. He deboned the entire heads 2 pigs, then covered with batons of tongue, ear, and sweetbreads. He then rolled and tied them, poached, and refrigerated overnight. For service, he sliced the ballontine into medallions, sauteed them, and served with the sauce. Everybody raved about the dish and a number asked how it was prepared. On full disclosure, a few, including my wife and daughter, turned a bit green.

You may want to stretch your wings a bit and try something like that.

 

[turnandburn]

Mick - Sounds like you have a worthy experiment going here. Look forward to following the thread.

When I first saw your post it reminded me of a dish I had at a party hosted by a very talented chef friend of mine a number of years ago. When the invitation arrived it stated that the featured item would be "Ballontine de Porc avec Sauce Gribeche". My wife and daughter asked what that might be and told them that it was probably a large piece of deboned pork, flattened , covered with other meat such as sausage, then rolled up and poached or roasted. 

I bumped into him a few days before the party, after swearing me to secrecy, told me the ballontine was adapted from a Thomas Keller recipe, and what it actually was. He deboned the entire heads 2 pigs, then covered with batons of tongue, ear, and sweetbreads. He then rolled and tied them, poached, and refrigerated overnight. For service, he sliced the ballontine into medallions, sauteed them, and served with the sauce. Everybody raved about the dish and a number asked how it was prepared. On full disclosure, a few, including my wife and daughter, turned a bit green.

You may want to stretch your wings a bit and try something like that.

we do things like that because nobody would try it if they knew what it was, everyones so afraid of trying new things. we had ppl jumping up and down for beef roast and beans at a party once, there was nothing left..they all found out quickly they were eating lengua and sangre (tongue and blood). best party they ever went to ..lol. they wanted proof but the steer it came from was all gone too. lmao. sometimes ya gotta gently force ppl.

 

[thsmormonsmokes]

we do things like that because nobody would try it if they knew what it was, everyones so afraid of trying new things. we had ppl jumping up and down for beef roast and beans at a party once, there was nothing left..they all found out quickly they were eating lengua and sangre (tongue and blood). best party they ever went to ..lol. they wanted proof but the steer it came from was all gone too. lmao. sometimes ya gotta gently force ppl.

Jeez, I thought I was taking liberties when I did some dutch oven camp cooking for some friends a few years back.  Everyone loved it, but a few of the really girly girls got weirded out when I told them they were eating ground elk, and not ground beef.

 

[turnandburn]

Jeez, I thought I was taking liberties when I did some dutch oven camp cooking for some friends a few years back.  Everyone loved it, but a few of the really girly girls got weirded out when I told them they were eating ground elk, and not ground beef.

lmao! wimps. they can forget eating ground elk..nobody ever forgets eating tongues and blood..lol.

 

[mr t 59874]

"Ballontine de Porc avec Sauce Gribeche".  Could this be the French version of a "Fatty"?

Will be watching this one Moikel. 

 

Tom

 

[dls1]

"Ballontine de Porc avec Sauce Gribeche".  Could this be the French version of a "Fatty"?

Will be watching this one Moikel. 

 

Tom

Tom - With a little Googling, I came across a blog with some pictures and a short video by a person who duplicated the ballontine at home.

Click here > http://carolcookskeller.blogspot.com/2008/05/head-to-toe-part-two-pigs-head.html

 

[chef jimmyj]

Smoked/Roasted Hogs Head is Finger Food! A fork will get at the meat if it is cooked to pulled pork temps. But there is just so much fun to be had poking a finger in all the the Nooks and Crannies to dig out the goodies. Jowl Bacon is 100X's better than Belly Bacon...JJ

 

[mr t 59874]

Perfect, got it saved, thanks dls.

Tom

 

[moikel]

Sure are a lot of headhunters on this forum

.

The jowl bacon here is the Italian version guacialle. I like it a lot but its hard to find. Damn yuppies just want strips in plastic containers.

I will pass by Chinatown on the way home & see what I can get size wise.

I am going to stick to head looking like a head vibe.My friends who are obvious starters now live out of state. I was told never eat anything bigger than your own head not sure how that applies here.

.

We have a major TV series here for ameuter cooks,where they compete ,get elimiminated etc called Mastrchef.In the first series this guy did roasted pigs head for the judges. Hit it out of the park but it was 3 male judges. Its not a dainty plate

. He used Belgian beer in his recipe because he was hoping to open a beer restaurant & bar so he used beer in every thing he cooked

I think I am headed down the cider path,slug of apple brandy as usual I will pull it together as I  go.
 

 

[foamheart]

I want in, I had eaten fish heads, head cheese, jowls, even "tenders"...... but never hoghead. Lead on Moikel, we are following.

 

[moikel]

When I was doing whole pigs in the woodfired oven some female guests asked me to cover the head with a towel when I bought to table! How am I supposed to eat it with a towel on it ? Well can we move seats ,sure look at its arse I dont care just pass the potatoes.

.

Or it was why didnt you cut its head off & cook it? Simple I like pigs head & with no head its going to dry out. What planet are you on girl?

I dont know how big a head I will get,but I need to have it cut down the middle to get an even cook.

I think apple cider & bits then a spiced apple sauce with some cloves,nutmeg as a side to dip meat into.

I am tempted to crank up this old girl & slow roast it .She hasnt run in a while ,lost chimney pot in a storm but I have cleaned her up & she is ready to run.

IMG_0148.JPG

• moikel
• Aug 28, 2013

 

[webowabo]

When I was doing whole pigs in the woodfired oven some female guests asked me to cover the head with a towel when I bought to table! How am I supposed to eat it with a towel on it ? Well can we move seats ,sure look at its arse I dont care just pass the potatoes.

.

Or it was why didnt you cut its head off & cook it? Simple I like pigs head & with no head its going to dry out. What planet are you on girl?

I dont know how big a head I will get,but I need to have it cut down the middle to get an even cook.

I think apple cider & bits then a spiced apple sauce with some cloves,nutmeg as a side to dip meat into.

I am tempted to crank up this old girl & slow roast it .She hasnt run in a while ,lost chimney pot in a storm but I have cleaned her up & she is ready to run.

IMG_0148.JPG

• moikel
• Aug 28, 2013

Nice little cooker you got there mick! Im ready to see some pig head. Ill be doing a whole hog next weekend (the 8th).. so Ill be sure to support one of my favorite Forums.. "Nose to Tail" I would think a whole hog literally its nose to tail... qualifies for the Forum.. :) 

Cant wait to see your head on a stick in that smoker :P 

Mike

 

[moikel]

I will get to it soon.Bit hard when the butchers daughter is down for the count with the flu.She is not convinced about the restorative powers of pig head.

I will do a smallish pig in my woof fired oven sometime soon. Spring here now came early good enough reason.

I need to find a tray long enough to take whole pig,may have to get it fabricated. I built the door according to plans but in retrospect should have gone wider. She is 1metre x 1.2 metre internal ,I run the fire in the .2 ,gives me 1msquare to cook in.

Looking forward to your whole pig. I love that style of cooking where you just go all in.Great thing about this forum is there are different styles ,Cuban,TexMex etc that are wonderfully different to what I have here.

Saw a great Balinese whole pig roast on TV,looked brilliant