Have always been interested in cooking odd bits of the pig...
Last week i came across probably one of the most interesting craigslist for sale ad's i have seen. A processing plant had posted a bulletin offering a special on pig heads. $5 for each head. Naturally, i called them up to check it out. So apparently no one in town utilizes these things, and when it comes to slaughtering time the plant just stores them in their deep freeze.
I know that a pigs head can be used for several dishes (head cheese, porchetta di testa, broths, etc.) so i decided to go pick a couple up. I am planning on using it in a ramen broth that i will be making later tonight. The heads happened to be skinned, which might ruin the chance at doing a head cheese or a porchetta di testa. That was a bit of a disappointment, and i had a convo with the manager of the plant to see if i could request a head or two with the skin on it.
The heads all have their jowls, tongues and brains in tact. I'm not sure if i want to mess around with the brain, but the jowls and the tongues are a must use. I've seen jowls cured into a bacon called Guanciale, and i've also seen them slow cooked, and smoked. The tongue i've had in street tacos before, but not sure how to go about cooking it. Imagine it is just a slow cook?
Figured I would give it a shot and see if anyone else here does this sort of stuff and if there are any tips and/or recipes incorporating the odd parts of the pig. Any ideas?