Recipe: How To Prepare Hot Peppered Pickled Pig's Feet

the appetizer:

The Whole Hog Cookbook, Chops, Loin, Shoulder, Bacon, and All That Good Stuff by Libbie Summers includes recipes like Pork Belly Gyros with Mykonian Tzatziki Sauce; Spanish-Style Rioja Potatoes; and How To Prepare Hot Peppered Pickled Pig's Feet.

How To Prepare
Hot Peppered Pickled Pig's Feet

Yields enough to fill a 2-quart jar

Tough to pronounce. Easy to prepare. Best to partake.

6 trotters
(pig's feet from the hind legs)
6 cups distilled white vinegar
2 jalapeño chiles
3 serrano chiles
1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
6 slices fresh ginger
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
4 black peppercorns
4 bay leaves
2 tablespoons kosher salt

1. Prepare the pig's feet by burning off any visible hair.

To do this, hold one at a time over a gas flame on the stovetop or use a kitchen torch, then rinse with cold water until thoroughly clean. Sterilize one 2-quart glass jar with a lid, or two 1-quart canning jars.

2. Using a cleaver, split the pig's feet in half lengthwise.

3. Put the split pig's feet in a large pot and cover with water.

4. Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1-1/2, to 2 hours, until the pig's feet are tender. While the pig's feet are cooking, skim off any foam from the surface.

5. Remove the feet from the cooking liquid, rinse with water, and set them aside. Discard the cooking liquid and clean the pot thoroughly.

6. Combine the vinegar, chiles, onion, ginger, remaining spices, the bay leaves, and salt in the clean pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

7. Add the cooked, cooled pig's feet to the vinegar mixture and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

8. Transfer the pig's feet to the sterilized jar(s), layering them with the chiles, onion, and spices. Pour in enough pickling liquid to cover, then cover and refrigerate. Partake of Hot Peppered Pickled Pig's Feet within 7 days after preparation.

A pig's foot a day could keep the wrinkles away...say practitioners of superfood eating. You see, pig's feet contain high amounts of the protein collagen. Collagen works hand in hand with keratin to provide the skin with strength and resilience and is often referred to as the glue that holds the body together. Armed with this knowledge, I'm counting on my love of pig's feet to help forty be the new thirty.

from:
The Whole Hog Cookbook:
Chops, Loin, Shoulder, Bacon, and All That Good Stuff
by Libbie Summers
Photography by Chia Chong
Rizzoli New York 2011
$30.00 US; Hardcover; 192 pages; 200 photographs
ISBN-10: 0847836827
ISBN-13: 978-0-8478-3682-6
Recipe reprinted by permission.

Buy The Whole Hog Cookbook