Our resident chef cooks up a traditional pickled pork product
I don’t remember the precise moment when I first became aware of souse meat, but I do remember the first time I tasted it. My grandmother always kept a small block of mottled, gray souse meat in the back of her harvest gold Frigidaire.
To me, it was the semicolon of her fridge; I wasn’t exactly sure what it was for, but I knew it was important. To her, however, souse meat was a taste of her past; it was a culinary relic that modern palates had mostly left behind.
If you’re familiar with souse meat, then you know it looks like pork snouts and sliced devil’s anus suspended in glistening, gray jello. You also know that it tastes like tangy, sliced, pickled pork heaven.
If you’re not familiar with souse meat, seeing the words “pickled” and “pork” together may make you want to unload every ounce of nope in your nope box, but millions of pickled pork eaters throughout history can’t all be wrong.
Pickled pork products have been eaten for centuries in both the South and the rest of the world, so grab a napkin and buckle up skeeter, we’re going in for some old-school deep-end dining.
Souse meat, and it’s unpickled cousin head cheese (spoiler alert—it’s not cheese), date back to at least the Middle Ages and the recipes haven’t changed much since. No good pile of good pig parts should ever go to waste, so souse meat is traditionally made from the treasure trove of underrated goodies from a pig’s head, feet, tongue, heart and tail.
Modern, commercially produced souse still exists, but you should never trust anyone else to make your souse, just like you never let someone else fold your parachute. Making your own means that you get to choose the meat:parts ratio and spice/vinegar balance that you prefer. Once perfected, you’ll have a signature souse worthy of both Maison Verot Charcutier and my grandmother’s Frigidaire.
My first taste of souse meat was with mustard on a slice of bread. It was porky with a vinegar tang and tasted nothing like the “chewy pork jello” I was expecting. The recipe that follows is my grandmother’s with a few tweaks of my own. Adjust the recipe to your tastes and serve on a cheese and charcuterie plate with wine or eat a big slice on white bread with mustard over the kitchen sink.
Bon Appetit!
- 1 pig head, cleaned
- 4 pig’s ears, cleaned and trimmed
- 4 pig’s feet, cleaned
- 4 cups chopped onion
- 3 Tbsp salt
- 3 Tsp ground black pepper
- 17 whole black peppercorns
- 3 Tbsp dried sage
- 3 whole cloves
- 5 bay leaves
- 3 Tbsp pickling spice
- 3 Tsp garlic powder
- 3 cups cider vinegar
- 2 cups chopped banana peppers
- 4 Tbsp unflavored gelatin
- 1 cup water
Split hog head. Clean thoroughly, removing eyes and brains. Scald. Scrape clean. Place pig head, feet, ears and chopped onions into a large stock pot and cover with water.
Add salt, pepper, peppercorns, sage, cloves, bay leaves, pickling spice, garlic powder and vinegar.
Bring to a boil and cook 4 ½ hours or until tender. Remove meat from the pot and set aside.
Strain the broth and return 8 cups to the stove to simmer. Remove every morsel of head meat from the bone.
Peel skin from ears, leaving the ear as intact as possible.
Remove gristle and fat from pig’s feet—combine with ear trimmings.
Cut off the large, lean portion of the tongue and set aside, then trim loose meat from the remainder and combine with other trimmings.
Finely chop the trimmings, then stir into broth—continue to simmer. Slice tongue into long thin strips and lay lengthwise into 2 glass 9x5 loaf pans.
Slice ears into thin strips, then cut the strips into ¼” pieces. Lay the ear pieces in among the tongue strips.
Divide the head meat between the two pans. Divide the peppers, spread 1 cup into each pan. Dissolve gelatin in 1 cup water and stir into the simmering broth.
Carefully ladle enough broth into each pan to completely cover the meat. Let stand 20 minutes.
Cover with remaining broth and allow to cool at room temperature for 2-3 hours until it starts to jell.
Refrigerate for 8 to 10 hours.
When set, scrape away any fat from the surface. Remove the souse loaf from the pan, slice and enjoy!
Yield 2 loaves.
Mike McJunkin is a native Chattanoogan currently living abroad who has trained chefs, owned and operated restaurants. Join him on Facebook at facebook.com/SushiAndBiscuits