I have been very busy. I took She Who Must Be Obeyed to New York for her birthday dinner, and will report on it tomorrow. In the meantime, I have been preparing for the annual dinner party to celebrate She Who Must Be Obeyed’s birthday (here’s last year’s menu). It will involve pork, in fact, it will use most of a baby pig, which I acquired yesterday from my favorite butcher. They broke down a 25-pound pig while I watched, handing over to me everything but the oink (and most of the innards). Here’s what’s residing in my fridge right now:
Frenched racks, which will produce perfect little chops.
Shoulders, the cut behind the head and above the front feet.
Legs, the cut above the rear feet, used to make hams. I will be making a confit of the legs and shoulders.
Saddles, the cut between the racks and the legs. This is where the loin and tenderloin are found.
Bellies, the cut below the ends of the racks. Too small for bacon, but still good eatin'.
The preceding cuts are all in various states of preparation for Saturday. But there’s more that I have longer-term plans for.
The feet, which wil be separated into trotters (lower joint) and hocks (upper joint). The trotters are always useful, the hocks will pay a visit to the smoker soon.
Skin from the racks, the kidneys, and the tail. I'm still thinking about what to do with these.
And last, but by no means least:
The head. The tongue is still in place, as are the eyes, but I had the brain removed because I won't have time to cook it properly.
I have Mother’s Day plans for that head, but I have a book
So are you saying you have the time to cook the eyes properly but not the brain?