Stuffed Pig's Head (WARNING: MAY BE DISTURBING)

NOTE: I'm going to provide a lot of text and this warning to allow you the chance to turn back before scrolling down and seeing photos, which I promise will probably freak most people out.  I hereby warn you!  Don't be upset with me if you continue on.

I'm posting this because I like to document significant things in my life.  I also did all of the prep work while Amy was out of the house, so I didn't get to really share this crazy experience with anyone.  I feel like I have to share!

So! Remember last year when I cooked pig's feet?  That was crazy huh?

Well, that was nothing.  This year's pig share (from Kelly Brook Farm in Greenland, NH) came with a LOT more.  More meat, more parts--among those, a head.  Actually, since it's a half pig share, half of a head.  It has been haunting/mocking me from our freezer for a few months now.

Quickly, have a look at the final product, which is not freaky at all:

Stuffed Pig's Head with Collard Greens

I'm sure a lot of you reading this started off wondering why anyone would ever do this, especially someone who is not starving and has easy access to innumerable alternative foods.  I'm sure I won't be able to give a good enough reason to satisfy everyone, but here are the main reasons I can think of:

Why cook and eat a pig head?

• To honor the animal by wasting as little of it as possible
• To try new cooking techniques
• To overcome a challenge
• To not waste money (we were charged for half of the pig's hanging weight, not for the weight of the final cuts we received)
• To have a unique experience

OK, let's get on with it.  I'm not going to bother including a recipe, let's just do a few photos with captions.  If you want to really see the recipe and process, I basically followed this post at French Laundry at Home, which followed the Stuffed Pig Head recipe in the French Laundry Cookbook.  I will say that I surprised myself in that I did not feel disturbed or grossed out at any time in the whole process, save for the very beginning.

Unwrapping was definitely the worst part.  I was afraid the jaw would fall open or random pieces would just fall off.  Nothing like that happened.  Although I will not post photos of the cut side, since I'm sure they will definitely disturb most people.

Diced up the ear.

I deboned the head, keeping almost all of it in one piece...  I originally was going to post a photo of this, but have decided not to risk freaking people out too much.

After getting rid of the skin and most of the fat, I did a terrible job pounding the meat  flat (only have a regular hammer), and arranged the braised tongue, extra meat, and diced ear on the meat.

Rolled it all up and bundled in cheese cloth.  Braised in the oven for 6 hours.

Maybe this photo is disturbing, but I'm guessing most of you have seen an animal skull before. Click to enlarge. I boiled the heck out of the remains so it would just be a skull.  I mean, come on! It's an animal skull! I've never had one before.  I couldn't miss the opportunity and just throw it out.  It's on our back deck now, getting a final cleaning by bugs hopefully.

After the 6 hour braise, I wrapped in fresh cheese cloth, suspended, and let dry out in the fridge for about 30 hours.

Here it is, all held together by magic.

Brushed with mustard, breaded, and fried.  Served with hard boiled egg and collard greens and a delicious sauce which I forgot to capture in any photos.  It is actually underneath.

Tasted pretty good. The texture was somewhere between pulled pork and... butter, I guess.  Certainly worth the effort for the experience and very interesting meal, but I don't think I'll bother to do it again--maybe if we were doing a dinner party with some adventurous guests, but otherwise, it's a lot of time and work for a meal--time that could be better spent on bread.

The final part of this pig head story is something smart that I realized in the midst of everything. In keeping with minimizing waste, while I was just waiting around for the tongue to finish braising, I rendered the fat I trimmed from the head into lard!  And since I had the time, I rendered all the back fat we got with the share too, so now I have about 2 cups of wonderful lard.  Time for some quiche? Biscuits?  Deep fried... things!!

BRIAN OUT.