Soldato
- Joined
- 11 Sep 2009
- Posts
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- France, Alsace
Well, I did show it in the other thread but I will share the recipe and that here.
Taken from my blog:
So I saw this in the German supermarket and thought, why not. For those who haven’t worked out the basic (and my limit) German, it was a pig head. Or half of one to be exact.
For the expensive price of 1.68 euros, I thought I’d give it a little try. So picked up a couple of these and thought I’d see what I could find on them. To be honest, I couldn’t find a lot online about good head recipes other than brawn. The main one I could find was by Fergus Henderson at St John’s in London, whose mantra is very much, nose to tail eating.
I adapted this slightly to fit around what I had and what I thought would be nice, and so here is the recipe:
1 half pig head (mine was small, as in, not quite half a head, a bigger would be needed for a couple of people).
2 onions (sliced).
5 cloves of garlic (sliced).
1 pack of smoked lardons.
Glug of cider vinegar.
Glass of white wine.
1.5L of good stock (may need more, depends on size of pigs head)
Sprinkle of sugar (it’s a good measurement, I know.)
2 leeks (chopped).
2 potatoes (thinly sliced or mandolin’d).
Knob of butter.
Salt / pepper.
Rosemary & thyme sprigs (couple will do).
Method:
Preheat your oven device to 180c. Slice your onions and garlic and chuck in your baking tray, on a hob on the top. Slosh in some olive oil and your lardons and cook until soft. Don’t brown them though.
Now place your piggy friend on top of the bed you’ve made him. (Percy, the mrs called him). Season him and pour in your cider vinegar and wine. Leave your wine out the fridge a bit, when it’s fridge cold it takes longer to bring up to temp. Same with your stock too, then pour this in as well. Season and add your sugar and herbs. You should not cover the entire head with liquid, but ½ to 2/3 up the head.
Pop it in the oven for 2hrs. If you have quite a big head (or the pig does, my head is massive, the pig’s wasn’t) cover the ears in foil as you don’t want these to burn. Mine had no ears, so I didn’t.
After 2 hours in, add the leeks and potatoes, the butter and then top up with some more stock to keep the liquid levels enough to cook the potatoes. You don’t need to cover them, but enough to allow them to cook. If you have foiled your ears, take the foil off at this point to allow them to crisp up.
This should be in about another 30minutes and then you are ready to serve.
Hearty meal there for you with some tasty crackling and juicy meat!
Inspiration for this was from Fergus Henderson’s recipe, which can be found here: http://russelleverett.blogspot.com/2010/01/pot-roast-half-pigs-head.html
In this blog, I didn’t have to shave my pig, it was already cleaned and ready. Be wary, you may have to!
Full post can be found: http://www.randomshenans.com/#/this-idiot-abroad/4556125295/The-Swine-Kopf/762921
Taken from my blog:
So I saw this in the German supermarket and thought, why not. For those who haven’t worked out the basic (and my limit) German, it was a pig head. Or half of one to be exact.
For the expensive price of 1.68 euros, I thought I’d give it a little try. So picked up a couple of these and thought I’d see what I could find on them. To be honest, I couldn’t find a lot online about good head recipes other than brawn. The main one I could find was by Fergus Henderson at St John’s in London, whose mantra is very much, nose to tail eating.
I adapted this slightly to fit around what I had and what I thought would be nice, and so here is the recipe:
1 half pig head (mine was small, as in, not quite half a head, a bigger would be needed for a couple of people).
2 onions (sliced).
5 cloves of garlic (sliced).
1 pack of smoked lardons.
Glug of cider vinegar.
Glass of white wine.
1.5L of good stock (may need more, depends on size of pigs head)
Sprinkle of sugar (it’s a good measurement, I know.)
2 leeks (chopped).
2 potatoes (thinly sliced or mandolin’d).
Knob of butter.
Salt / pepper.
Rosemary & thyme sprigs (couple will do).
Method:
Preheat your oven device to 180c. Slice your onions and garlic and chuck in your baking tray, on a hob on the top. Slosh in some olive oil and your lardons and cook until soft. Don’t brown them though.
Now place your piggy friend on top of the bed you’ve made him. (Percy, the mrs called him). Season him and pour in your cider vinegar and wine. Leave your wine out the fridge a bit, when it’s fridge cold it takes longer to bring up to temp. Same with your stock too, then pour this in as well. Season and add your sugar and herbs. You should not cover the entire head with liquid, but ½ to 2/3 up the head.
Pop it in the oven for 2hrs. If you have quite a big head (or the pig does, my head is massive, the pig’s wasn’t) cover the ears in foil as you don’t want these to burn. Mine had no ears, so I didn’t.
After 2 hours in, add the leeks and potatoes, the butter and then top up with some more stock to keep the liquid levels enough to cook the potatoes. You don’t need to cover them, but enough to allow them to cook. If you have foiled your ears, take the foil off at this point to allow them to crisp up.
This should be in about another 30minutes and then you are ready to serve.
Hearty meal there for you with some tasty crackling and juicy meat!
Inspiration for this was from Fergus Henderson’s recipe, which can be found here: http://russelleverett.blogspot.com/2010/01/pot-roast-half-pigs-head.html
In this blog, I didn’t have to shave my pig, it was already cleaned and ready. Be wary, you may have to!
Full post can be found: http://www.randomshenans.com/#/this-idiot-abroad/4556125295/The-Swine-Kopf/762921
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