When Life Gives You A Pig Head, Roast It!

I went to the Capital Bacon and Beer Bash, and lo and behold, one of the features of the event was a pig butchering demonstration by Chris of SausageCraft, a wholesale small batch craft sausage company.  I had never heard of the company before so I stalked their website before the bash.  You see, craft sausage has been on my food project list ever since I had the life-changing venison brats from Momma Keeler and ever since my mom bought me a book on how to make sausage for my birthday.  But I digress.  Much to my chagrin, they do not sell retail and as far as I can tell, their clients are mostly in Richmond.  Sausage fail.

Anyway, as we all attempted to digest the 10,000 calories worth of bacon and bacon products, the butchering demonstration began.  I like butchering.  It's something I'd like to do more but don't really have the opportunity to do.  I've had the basic venison butchering tutorial.  Much to our joy, Chris explained each cut and then started handing them out to the various spectators.  I'm pretty ruthless when it comes to food.  Life is too damn short to stand back and be a wallflower. 

Clearly, I needed to work out some strategery.  First, a bacon and beer bash generally attracts testosterone-laden and slightly overweight men.  Being a little asian woman probably didn't hurt.  Second, apparantly, people in DC are pretty boring.  They just stare and watch demonstrations.  I believe in interactive demonstrations and banter with the presenter... especially when its a pig butchering.  Come on folks, take the fork out of your um... yea, and have a little fun!  Third, a clear and vocal appreciation of meat will get you everywhere.  Fourth, be helpful.  Really.  Logistically, bagging up ice and putting each cut in a plastic bag kind of sucks, so I decided to pitch in to help expedite the process.  So for all you jerks who just stood there and watched these guys run there butts off for you so you could get your piece of meat, this is why you didn't get the head.  Being nice never hurt anyone and so when I asked for the head (and I also somehow managed to get a rack of ribs too... ), it was mine, no questions asked, much to the chagrin of the trio of guys behind me (who, I might add, basically stalked me to the car).  I wasn't a jerk about it, one woman asked if she could have the ears and I also gave up one of the cheeks, which for me was the coveted part of the pig head.

When I got home, I stuck the head in the freezer and got to researching.  I had a little time as I was planning on using the pig head as my centerpiece for my birthday party.  Most of the options seemed well, not shocking enough.  Head cheese, souse, blah blah blah.  Until I came across a Filipino recipe for crispy pig head.  I decided to modify that recipe and then making different dipping sauces for the meat and the crispy skin.

First, I took the liquid I had braised the pork spare ribs in which was basically water, soy sauce, onion, garlic powder, salt and a crapload of whole peppercorns and brought it up to a boil in a 6 gallon pot.  Yes, I own a 6 gallon pot.  It's pretty handy for brewing beer, canning, and scalding a pig head.  Anyway, after playing around with the head for about thirty minutes (seriously, making a pig head talk is the best kitchen prep ever) and making sure all the hairs were shaved down with a bic razor (yes, I took the moisturizing strip off), I dropped it into the boiling broth and turned the heat off.  I let it sit for about 45 minutes. 

I ladled out the broth and stuck it into quart canning jars to give to friends as party favors.  A wierd party favor but I think this broth would make some epic Korean style ramen.  Plus it made it easier to take the head out.  Then I patted him dry and brushed on a glaze of equal parts water to honey, with a squeeze of lemon, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Bake at 315 degrees for 4 hours and....

I let it rest for about an hour and then set it out with a spicy horseradish honey mustard sauce, barbecue sauce, bacon ketchup, and hot sauce.  We picked away at the crispy skin which tasted amazing, and dug into the cheek meat.  And so that's what I did when life gave me a free pig head.