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Pig's Feet and Ears, in Jelly
Cleanse and scrape the feet and ears, and let them soak in cold water for two or three hours. Put them into a stewpan, with as much water as will barely cover them, and simmer gently until they are quite tender. Take them up, and draw out all the bones. Put the meat back into the liquid, with six sage-leaves, chopped small, a table-spoonful of finely-shredded parsley, and a seasoning of salt, cayenne, and powdered mace, and simmer again until the flavour is drawn out of the herbs and the liquid is reduced to a jelly. Pour the whole into a shape, and serve cold. Time, the pig's feet and ears must be long and gently boiled till they are tender. Sufficient for a breakfast or luncheon dish.
A brawn or head-cheese in miniature: the collagen in trotters and ears sets the cooking liquid without any added gelatine. Two points decide whether it works.
- Keep the liquid tightThe whole trick is barely covering the feet with water so the finished stock is concentrated enough to set. If you drown them, you will have soup; reduce hard after boning rather than adding more water at any stage.
- Timing"Long and gently boiled" means 3 to 4 hours at a bare simmer for trotters, until the skin slips and the bones pull free clean. Ears are usually tender in 2 to 2 1/2 hours and can be lifted out earlier.
- Sourcing the partsTrotters are still sold by many butchers, often split lengthwise, which speeds boning. Ears usually need ordering; both should be well singed, and any remaining bristle comes out with a razor or a torch before soaking.
- Bone with careTrotters carry many small bones and cartilage slivers. Work through the meat with your fingers while it is warm, not hot, and check twice — a missed bone in a cold jelly is unpleasant.
- Mace and cayennePowdered mace is the dried aril that encloses the nutmeg seed; its flavour is close to nutmeg though lighter and more aromatic. About 1/4 teaspoon suits this quantity. Cayenne means a pinch, for warmth rather than heat.
- Season above targetCold jelly tastes markedly blander than the hot liquid. Salt the reduced stock until it seems slightly too savoury before you pour it into the mould.
- The shapeA "shape" is simply a mould, plain or ornamental; a loaf tin or pudding basin lined with cling film unmoulds most cleanly. Chill at least 6 hours, or overnight, and turn out onto a board to slice.
- Yield and servingTwo trotters and two ears will give roughly a 1 lb loaf, though the recipe specifies no quantities and calls it simply a breakfast or luncheon dish. Serve in thin slices with mustard, cornichons or a sharp vinaigrette; it keeps three or four days refrigerated.
Jellied trotters belong to the long European tradition of brawn — cheap gelatinous cuts simmered down and set in their own liquor, called fromage de tête in France, sülze in Germany, kholodets in Russia. The recipe itself places the dish among breakfast and luncheon dishes, and a cold, sliceable jelly was exactly what a Victorian household wanted on the sideboard: made a day ahead, needing no reheating, and drawing value from parts of the pig that had already yielded the hams and chops. The sage and parsley are the standard English seasoning for pork, and the mace and cayenne reflect a period habit of warming cold meats with spice rather than acid. Packaged domestic gelatine was available by the later nineteenth century, but a good trotter stock made it unnecessary.