Shoat Jowl
The upper half of the head is what is generally used for what is called "The Pig's-head Stew." Another nice dish may be made of the under jaw or jowl by parboiling until the jawbone can be taken out; always adding pepper and salt just before it is done. When perfectly tender, score across; pepper and salt again, cover with beaten egg, then with cracker. Set in a pan with some of the water in which it was boiled. Put in a hot oven and brown.--Mrs. S. T.
A fresh pork jowl, simmered until the bone slips out, then crumbed and browned. The whole dish turns on cooking the jowl long enough that the connective tissue gives way before it ever sees the oven.
- What a shoat jowl isA shoat is a young hog, weaned but not yet full grown, so the jowl is a fresh (uncured, unsmoked) cut of about 1 to 2 lb. Butchers still sell them, often labelled pork jowl or hog jaw; do not substitute cured jowl bacon, which is far too salty for this treatment.
- Parboiling timeExpect 1.5 to 2.5 hours at a bare simmer, not a rolling boil, which only tightens the meat. The jawbone lifting out cleanly is the real test; by then the meat will have been held well above the temperature at which collagen breaks down to gelatin.
- Salting at the endThe instruction to add pepper and salt "just before it is done" is this cook's practice, and is seen in other receipts of the period. Seasoning the water from the start does no harm and gives better-flavoured meat; the second seasoning after scoring still matters.
- "Cover with cracker"This means crushed plain soda or water crackers, a common nineteenth-century coating crumb. Crushed saltines or unseasoned dry breadcrumbs both work; the crumb should be fine and dry so it browns rather than steams.
- A hot ovenRead this as roughly 400 to 450F. Twenty to thirty minutes is usually enough to set the egg and colour the crumb, since the meat is already fully cooked.
- The cooking liquidOnly a shallow film of it in the pan, and skim the fat off first. A jowl throws a great deal of rendered fat, and undegreased liquid will soften the crumb crust from below.
- ScoringThe recipe says only to score across; shallow cuts, no more than about a quarter inch deep, give the egg and crumb something to hold and let the second seasoning reach past the surface.
- Yield and servingA jowl of this size will serve perhaps three as a main course. It is rich, and something sharp alongside — greens, boiled potatoes, a pickle or pepper vinegar — helps cut the fat.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1877), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions signed with initials like "Mrs. S. T.", records a household economy in which a hog was killed at home in cold weather and every part of it accounted for. The head was often divided in this way: the upper half went into the pig's-head stew mentioned in the first line, while the jowl, cheaper and fattier, was treated separately. Crumbing and browning a boiled meat was a standard way of turning something plain into something that could go to the table looking like a roast. Cured and smoked, the same cut became jowl bacon, still a Southern seasoning meat for beans and greens; this recipe catches it in its fresh state.