Day 18: Making Head-Way

When I told some friends about the Nutellvis (see Day 13)over lunch last week some recoiled in horror, others leaned forward in excitement, and one person remained perfectly still in quiet contemplation.  If bacon could go well with peanut butter and nutella, bacon should go with a similar sandwich.  How about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?  Peter christened it the Jellvis.  The Jellvis made its world premiere this morning at breakfast to an audience of one…me.  It tasted great, but I opted for home made strawberry jam that was a little runny.  The runny jam resulted in a slightly soggy sandwich.  I'll try a different jam later in the week just to be sure, I’ll put banana on half of it as well.

The makings of the Jellvis

Split brain personality...pork style

Face to face

I had two halves of pig’s head to cook, but only one oven; BBQ to the rescue!  It took a while to get the temperature just right, a combination of using only one burner at low heat and propping the lid open just slightly to maintain an even 225 degrees.  And there they both stayed, one inside, and one outside, slowly cooking and rendering their flesh and muscle into soft and sticky deliciousness.  Once finished, the head would allow me to make some serious progress on my list of parts consumed.

Knowing what lay ahead for dinner, I went light on lunch, some pork bone marrow on toast and some cheese.  I seared the flat side of the bone in a pan for a few minutes and then placed it in the oven for about a half hour.  It would have taken a lot less time to roast them, but I had to keep the heat down for the head.  What emerged from the oven was like butter, and tasted rich and creamy and meaty all at once.  I had to wonder: how come I don’t make marrow more often?  It tastes great, is easy to prepare, costs next to nothing, and has a built-in (and quite elegant) serving mechanism.

As the hours passed, I resisted the urged to check on the heads; there was enough fat on them to keep them juicy while they cooked “low and slow”.  The original three-person dinner party expanded to seven when I asked my brother Marco and his family if they’d like to join me.  My nephew has an adventurous palette and I knew he’d be excited at the prospect of eating some strange animal parts.  Then the attendance list expanded yet again when my brother David stopped in after passing through my neck of the woods.  Now we were nine, well, eight with one 4-year-old’s stomach…she doesn’t eat much.  Good thing I had that second head.

I pulled the foil off the heads and drew my knife across the faces to score the skin deeply in preparation for a generous salting and seasoning and some time under the broiler.

Before scoring

After scoring

While the first head crisped away, we started off dinner with some prosciutto, fried salo, fresh cheese and freshly baked bread courtesy of Alex and Julie.  From there, we moved onto pork perogies with bacon and sour cream.  And then the interesting part of dinner started.  I pulled the first head from the broiler and the smells and sounds of what would be a great meal filled the kitchen.  The skin continued to bubble and crackle as I cut into it, peeled it away from the head and sliced it into pieces along with the ear.  It crunched like a rich salty candy as we bit into it.  Then came the meat from the cheeks, the brow and other parts.  I split the eyeballs with my nephew and my brother’s girlfriend, while the others at the table politely refused.  What shocked me was their willingness to try the brain which was revealed when I flipped the head over to see what could be recovered from the insides.   I spread it on the freshly baked bread like it was butter…even my four year old niece joined us after insisted that she wanted some brain too.  Finally, my nephew and I ate some of the snout.

Waves of prosciutto

Pork perogies (aka pelmeni)

Crispy sliced skin and ears

Eyeball, ready to be plucked

Sliced (and seasoned) eyeball.

Relax, even an 11-year-old ate it.

The head after some time under the broiler...extra tasty crispy

After essentially eight hours of slow cooked love and attention, the pig's head adventure was over, and all who joined me were satisfied and quite full.  Having everyone there made the effort that much more enjoyable as the experience changed from being just about me and my month of pork to being about sharing with my family and friends.  Tonight we created sweet memories of bread broken, wine uncorked, and some uncommon bits of pork consumed.