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Souse-Delicious
Boil pigs feet until very tender, after having thoroughly cleaned and scalded them; then pick them from the bones, fat skin and all, and chop a little-not too fine; after this is done, add to the liquor the feet were cooked in vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, heat all together and pour into a large earthen dish. It will cut out solid like jelly.
A jellied pork loaf that sets on its own collagen, with no added gelatine. The original assumes you know how long feet take and how sharp the vinegar should be, so those are the gaps worth filling.
- Cleaning and scaldingButcher-bought feet today come scraped and split, so the scalding step is largely done. Give them a scrub, then a 5-minute blanch in boiling water and a rinse to clear the scum that would otherwise cloud the set.
- "Until very tender"That is 3 to 4 hours at a bare simmer, or considerably less under pressure. The meat should slip from the bone under thumb pressure; anything less and the liquor will not carry enough collagen to gel.
- Keep the liquor concentratedThis is the hinge. Barely cover the feet with water and never let it gallop, or you dilute the gelatine and end up with a loaf that weeps. If the strained stock does not set firm on a chilled saucer, boil it down before adding the vinegar.
- Vinegar and seasoning quantitiesThe recipe gives none. Start with 1/4 cup of cider vinegar per quart of liquor and taste; souse is meant to be assertively sour but not harsh. Season the liquid more strongly than seems right, since cold jelly reads flat.
- "Chop a little-not too fine"Pea-sized to fingernail-sized pieces. Minced meat sinks into a paste and the finished loaf slices without texture; the point of souse is visible chunks suspended in clear jelly.
- The earthen dishAny straight-sided non-reactive mould works, and a loaf tin lined with plastic wrap makes unmoulding trivial. Fill to the brim, press a sheet of parchment on the surface, and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
- Skimming the fatThe original keeps the fat skin in, which is traditional. If you want a cleaner slice, chill the strained liquor first and lift the solidified fat cap before reheating and combining.
- Keeping and yieldKeeping -- It is a fresh jelly, not a cure: keep it refrigerated and eat within four or five days. Serve cold and sliced, with mustard and bread.
Souse is the old English name for meat, usually pork trimmings, preserved in a sharp vinegar pickle. In the American household books of the nineteenth century it belongs to the thrift end of hog-killing time, along with scrapple, head cheese and pickled feet, using the gelatinous extremities that yielded nothing else. Cold, sliceable and already made, it was food that could be set out for an evening meal without lighting the stove again. Versions of the dish persisted well into the twentieth century in the American South and the Caribbean, where souse is still made with feet, citrus or vinegar, and hot peppers.