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Hog's Ears, Stuffed and Fried
Parboil two pairs of hogs' ears. Raise the skin of the upper side, and fill them with a forcemeat made by mincing and mixing thoroughly a quarter of a pound of suet, six ounces of bread-crumbs, a pounded anchovy, two teaspoonfuls of chopped parsley, one table-spoonful of sage, and a little pepper and salt. Bind these ingredients together with the yolks of two eggs. When stuffed, skewer the ears to prevent the forcemeat escaping, and fry them in a little hot butter until brightly browned, then drain them and put them into a stewpan, with half a pint of good gravy, one table-spoonful of mixed mustard, one ounce of butter rolled in flour, one onion, and a little pepper and salt. Cover the stewpan closely, and simmer gently for half an hour, shaking the pan frequently, to keep the contents from sticking. A few minutes before the meat is done enough, add a glass of sherry. Put the ears in a hot dish, strain the gravy over them, and serve very hot. Probable cost, 8d. Sufficient for four persons.
A Victorian offal dish that hinges entirely on how long the ears are cooked before they are stuffed. Everything else is straightforward braising.
- Parboiling is not enoughPig ears are almost pure cartilage and collagen; a brief parboil leaves them rubbery and impossible to eat pleasantly. Simmer them 1½ to 2 hours, until a skewer meets no resistance, then cool them before you attempt to lift the skin.
- Sourcing and cleaningEars come from a butcher or an Asian or Latin American grocer, usually frozen and already scalded. Check the folds for bristle and singe or scrape any that remain before cooking; the original assumed a cook who did this without being told.
- Raising the skinWork a small sharp knife between the skin and the cartilage on the convex side to make a pocket, keeping the edges intact. This is far easier on a cooled, fully cooked ear than on a warm half-done one.
- SuetBeef suet, shredded, from a butcher or in packet form. It exists here for moisture and richness in a very lean stuffing; the same weight of cold butter, coarsely grated, works if suet is unavailable.
- A tablespoonful of sageMost likely dried rubbed sage, the usual store-cupboard form; a tablespoon of it is assertive but in period. If using fresh sage, chop about three tablespoons.
- Mixed mustardPrepared mustard made up from powder with water, meaning English mustard. Ordinary jarred English mustard is the closest match; Dijon will read sweeter and milder.
- Half a pint of gravyAn imperial half pint is 10 fl oz, about 285 ml, or just under a cup and a quarter by US measure. Use a well-reduced brown stock; the dish has no other liquid until the sherry goes in.
- Butter rolled in flourBeurre manié: one ounce of butter kneaded with roughly the same volume of flour. Add it in small pinches so the braising liquid thickens smoothly rather than lumping.
- Oven or hobThe recipe specifies a closely covered stewpan on the hob, shaken frequently; a covered low oven would achieve the same gentle half-hour simmer without the shaking, though the book does not suggest it. Serves four as written.
Cassell's, compiled for the large late-Victorian household, treats every part of the pig as a candidate for the table, and ears sit alongside feet, cheek and chitterlings in the same thrifty register. The technique here — long boiling, then stuffing or frying, then a sharp mustard-and-wine sauce — invites comparison with French oreilles de porc cookery, particularly the Sainte-Menehould treatment in which ears and trotters are cooked to softness and finished with mustard and crumbs, though no direct line of borrowing can be traced for this recipe. The mustard and sherry are doing deliberate work: cartilage-rich cuts are bland and gelatinous, and sharpness is what makes them palatable. The stated cost of 8d for four is the point of the recipe as much as the flavour, and offal has largely disappeared from British home cooking in the twentieth century.