Alas Poor Porky

I got a helluva fright while digging through our big chest freezer the other day.  A plastic bag I picked up suddenly split open and out popped a grinning snout with perky brown ears.  

The head of the pig that was spit roasted back in June.  It was roasted just a tad too much and the skin and ears were not crispy but as tough as leather.   After the visitors left we were more than over-done  with eating pork so into the freezer it went and was soon forgotten.

Oh dear Porky. On the menu once again

I boiled the whole head for an hour.

K and the wild cats licked their lips for days.

The skin and snout were soft and gelatinous.  I cut it all up into thin strips for the cats.  They fought and yowled over it all that night.

  There was a lot of good meat on the skull, tongue and brains included, and it came away easily from the bone. 

K enjoyed some of the meat for lunch.  I did not.  It had a very porky taste and and was, sort of slimy, well gelatinous.

That night I boiled rice, pilafi, for K in the juices that were left in the pot.  He enjoyed that as well for a couple of meals.

Last night I made youvetsi with the leftover meat.  Youvetsi is meat,  stewed in tomatoes with orzo which is a fat rice-like pasta.  There's enough left for a meal on Friday.

Friday because today, Wednesday, is the eve of the 15th August and the big church celebration of The Assumption of the Virgin Mary.  I would say it's the biggest fiesta in the Greek Orthodox church and most of Catholic Europe.

Wednesday K is fasting and Thursday we feast.  

Alas poor Porky.  He fed us well

I don't remember anyone crunching on the eyeballs. Maybe they fell out into the fire.

The skull bones came apart into 4 or 5  pieces and I've put those back in the freezer, into a bag with bones from lamb and chicken carcasses.  When the bag is full I will boil them all up for an hour or so to make bone broth.  The broth is full of nutriments and will add loads of flavour to  more meat dishes.

Nose to tail eating.

I have already turned the trotters into bone broth. The liver is in the freezer in a separate bag. I'd better deal with that next. 

Or K will.

Liver and onions perhaps