Love Means Never Having To Say I Won't Cook You Pickled Pig's Feet

I'll be the first to admit that this dish of escabeche de patas de puerco
con cebolla y repollo—Pickled Pig's Feet a La Mexicana With Onions and Cabbage—is not everyone's favorite. But before some of you turn away in disgust, let me just say that most of these animal parts that you don't dare touch much less eat actually taste surprising good. (Ever had sausage?) Lengua de rez (beef tongue) is my all time favorite tender meat for tacos. I will never turn down some nice crispy tripas (intestines) hot off the grill, or look down my nose at the tender bites of cow stomach in menudo. Who says that you can't make a silk purse out a sow's ear? Mexicans have done it over and over again, at least when it comes to turning an unwanted piece of meat into a fabulous feast.

But I draw the line at pig's feet. I'd just as soon eat a human foot as I would a pig's hoof. It just seems too ghoulish for my taste. Plus, the pig's patitas seem so sad and lonely, like the discarded shoes you often see on the side of the road.

My husband, on the other hand, suffers from no such sensibilities. He is more than happy to suck on the toes of a puerquito that contently spent its days wallowing in the muck and eating his weight in corn until he made that fateful little trip to the woodshed. By the blissful look on my viejo's face, you would think that he was served an exquisite delicacy of the utmost refinement on a silver platter. He looks so happy! I look so horrified! He glares in my direction and washes it all down with a cold glass of beer, and slowly pats his stomach and smiles in a way that says ha! you won't spoil my fun.

For years I have adamantly refused to have anything to do with pickled pig's feet, but lately I've had a change of heart. I suppose I was trying to impose my own tastes rather then respecting his, which is what I should have done all along. Everybody has a different palate. What is gross for one is heaven to another. Just because I don't like it, who's to say that Mexican style pickled pig's feet doesn't taste good (at least to some)? My husband says that the meat and marrow are full of delicious porky flavor, even if you have to suck on the bones. Any fattiness is counterbalanced by the acidity of the vinegar and the slight taste of chile piquin. He loves to eat it all with some fresh thin-chopped cabbage, perhaps some jalapeño chiles or hot sauce, onions and a must-have icy-cold beer.

It appears to me to be a very masculine dish, not for the faint of heart, true, but one that unflinchingly tells us, that yes, you are eating another living thing and have been doing so for a very long time. Just admit it and be done with it.

So here it is: my first attempt at pickled pig's feet, cooked just the way Doña Catalina, The Lady of The Hacienda, used to cook it for my husband and his father. It's now my turn to cook it, to watch him as he eats it with relish and surprise at my having made it for him in the first place--and featuring it on my blog no less, something I vowed I would never do. He contently pats his stomach—no reproachful smiles this time. Is this all it takes to make him one happy muchachito?

Because love means never having to say I won't cook you patas de puerco.

P. S.: Guess what my husband is eating for Super Bowl tomorrow? That's right—a pig's foot with a bottle of beer. I'll be enoying a Jane Austen movie instead.

(Note: I know that it's been a long time coming, but tamales will be the subject of my next post. I finally got some amigas to join me for a little tamalada—tamale party. See you next time!)

Mexican Style Pickle Pig's Feet

Escabeche de patas de puercoI may be totally wrong about this, but I suspect that this dish was introduced by those other organ meat and beer loving people, the German and Czech immigrants who arrived in Mexico in the 1800's, who also taught Northern Mexicans the finer points of beer making and making music on the accordion ("música norteña").

If you are brave enough to try this dish, make sure that you buy the freshest pig's feet available. The bones must be the lightest beige and the fat must be absolutely white. The meat and skin must be a delicate "porky" pink. The broth is delicious and flavorful. Just bring the water with no extra ingredients to a boil until all the nasty scum rises to the top. Toss out the water, rinse the pig's feet, add the necessary ingredients, and start all over again. Refrigerate it overnight and skim off the fat.

Ingredients:

4 or 5 pig's feet

water
2 garlic cloves2 white onions, 1 cut in half

¼ head of cabbage, thin-sliced (not shown)
1 teaspoon oregano½ teaspoon ground black pepper1 tablespoon salt1 bay leaf¼ teaspoon dried thymeapple cider vinegar to taste (¼ cup to 2 cups). My husband likes his with plenty of vinegar, but you don't have to make it that way if you don't want to.dried chile piquin or chile de árbol to taste (optional)

Put the pig's feet in a large pot with plenty of water. Add the oregano, black pepper, salt, bay leaf and 1 onion, cut in half. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer over medium low heat for 1 to 1 ½ hours OR until the meat and skin are tender when pierced with a fork and the meat is falling off the bones. You will be surprised how good it smells.

In the meantime, thin-slice as much onion and the cabbage as you want.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pig's feet to a large bowl. Pour the vinegar over the pork and the onion and cabbage and the chiles. (You can omit the slice cabbage for later and eat it fresh with the picg's feet if you wish.) Add a little dried oregano is you wish. Wait for the pig's feet to cool off. Transfer the pig's feet mixture to a gallon size zip lock storage bag and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Make sure you flip it every couple of hours so that the all of the pig's feet may absorb the vinegar.

Serve it to your guests with ice-cold beer and pray they will like it.