Pork

[Deleted]

pork chops
ham
bacon
pork belly
pork roast
ham hocks
pigs' feet
pâté
spare ribs

That is just to get your mental juices flowing. What is your best version of pork?

[bixaorellana]

pulled pork, northern N.Carolina style
carnitas a la michoacana (hacked up everything of pork cooked in lard)
Easter baked ham with the pinapple and cloves
hog's head cheese

[Deleted]

Pork tenderloin,ribs,roast,pate forever

[hwinpp]

Pork knuckle.

[bazfaz]

I love rillettes.

[happytraveller]

I am no big fan of Pork. But I love Salami.

[tillystar]

Homer Simpson and I share a love of pork products:


Homer: Are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal.
Homer: Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.

[Deleted]

Please tell me more about pork knuckle,how do you prepare/eat it?

[hwinpp]

#1 preparation is Chinese style. Very simple.
Prepare the soup, use a biggish pot, boil water, add 3 or 4 star anis, a TS of thick soy sauce, a TS of oyster sauce, 4-5TS light soy sauce, a handful of tongku dried mushrooms (I like them whole but you can soak them in water and then slice them) and 4 or 5 cloves of garlic. Score knuckle add to soup, cook until soft enough to eat with chopsticks (and that is not too soft, the knuckle should not be falling apart but the skin easily penetrable and it must be possible to separate the muscles). Eat with rice, chopped chilis, a bit of chopped coriander green and pickled kai choi (mustard green).

#2 preparation is German/Alsatian style. Boiled with sauerkraut (add a bayleaf or two, some juniper berries and maybe a pinch of caraway, served with boiled potatoes, lots of mustard.

[Deleted]

Thanks. #1 sounds wonderful,more up my alley. #2 although I love sauerkraut I loathe juniper berries,one reason I never cared for gin.

[hwinpp]

Then leave them out
I just saw I got the garlic in #1 wrong. Not 4-5 cloves but 4-5 whole 'bunches'. You can also add anything spongy, such as taufu pok, cubed tofu, deep fried, or other mushrooms.

[auntieannie]

rippli? (I am not tellling porkers, Happy... or am I?)
sausages
rillettes and pork chops and pork belly
pates and terrines
proscuitto ("raw" ham)

[Deleted]

Now I am going to have to restrain myself from visiting the Chinese supermarket tomorrow, which sells big bags of pork bones (with plenty of meat on them) for 1€ a kilo.

I keep telling myself that I am going to buy the chicken carcasses instead.

[Deleted]

I have to go to the supermarket that sells pigs' feet soon, but I won't make the same mistake that I have in the past. I absolutely love them for one meal and then I don't want them again for months -- so I will buy half as much as I did last time.

[hwinpp]

Thanks for the reminder. I'll get them this weekend as well, I have to go to the supermarket for them.

One more to add to the general 'pork' topic:

Pork tongue!

[lagatta]

I don't usually cook pork, but a Greek greengrocer/small supermarket I like has pork loin roast for ,99$ a lb/ 2,18$ kg. That is absurdly cheap, and I'm trying to think what I could do with that. I don't want to eat pork every day either, but I don't think the roasts are very big.

[imec]

Pork Buttons

[imec]

Oh, and no-one's mentioned char siu (Chinese BBQ Pork).

[fumobici]

Prosciutto crudo, but not that philistine Parma stuff, prosciutto toscano.

Oh, and chorizo and American bacon.

[Deleted]

Are we on the same page for chorizo? In France of course, we eat the Spanish version, but are the Mexican and other versions more or less the same?

[bixaorellana]

No, not at all. Mexican chorizo is an uncooked product. You can usually discern vinegar and cloves as part of the flavorings. It's spicy, but not excessively so. There is also white chorizo -- no chile -- and a green one. The green one is not part of the food canon in Oaxaca, but I've bought it at a supermarket that's part of a northern chain. It tastes a great deal like American breakfast link sausage.

See the links of it hanging? It is an extremely popular product.

[cristina]

I have both Mexican and Spanish style chorizo available in my grocery stores but my personal preference is for Spanish-style, simply because that is what I grew up with. My uncle made his own chorizo and it was the best I have ever had.

The Mexican chorizo in my stores has a bit more fat, I think, and is seasoned differently, its a bit spicier. Also, I have only seen the Mexican version sold as fresh sausage, rather than dried. I would imagine that there are other varieties of chorizo in Mexico, depending on the region, just as there are many varieties in Spain.

Now, can someone tell me what pork buttons are?

I love pork in all its forms, but pork buttons is a new one for me.

[auntieannie]

Where is Tilly? she could correct me. If I am not mistaken, our spanish friends have a dry cured version of chorizo, to eat like salami and other air-dried meats as well as a "to cook" version.

I haven't yet stumbled upon the "to cook" chorizo version, but it is one of my ambitions.

[Deleted]

Probably the Spanish speciality shops have it, but I have never been in one!

[fumobici]

I meant the Mexican chorizo, the dry cured Spanish version is OK, but the Mexican type I find far more interesting. And just to inject some sacrilege into the chorizo discussion, the best I've bought in the US is total guero stuff made by Isernio's in Seattle of all places There used to be a shop in Zillah, E Washington to that made great chorizo but I think the Isernio's is even better.

[bixaorellana]

No reason it shouldn't be the best. I have had crummy chorizo, tamales, tortillas etc. made by real Mexicans. I googled Isernio's and it would seem their noble background of sausage making would qualify them to make an excellent chorizo.

[Deleted]

There's a lot of bad chorizo out there, just like there's a lot of bad saucisson in France and bad salami in Italy.

[imec]

From Wikipedia: Pork Button Ribs - Button ribs are flat, circular shaped bones located at the sirloin end of the loin. They are not actually ribs, as they are not taken from the rib cage. The button ribs consist of the last 4 to 6 bones on the backbone that do not have actual ribs connected to them. The meat on the button ribs consists of meat that covers each button and connects them together.

[hwinpp]

Good, I was wondering what they are.

Char siew is one of my favourites. You can buy the marinade mixture in Europe.

[lagatta]

I almost never cook pork (or beef, or any mammalian meats) but I did buy one of the little loin roast I described. It was just a kg and thus cost all of $2,39. Cooked it with a lot of vegetables: onions, tomatoes I had started to process for sauce, a lovely little curly cabbage. A bit overcooked as I'm not so used to cooking that and it can't be served medium-rare, but not bad at all, and can be used in many other things.