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UNCLE JIMMY wrote:Tina boils pork feet and hocks ( fresh ) and says she has to boil it long so that the collagen creates the jell for the mixture. She adds no vinegar. Her gram ( German / Russian parents ) never added the vinegar either.
My dad and mom made it Italian with all pork with face / tails / and head pieces...lips cheeks, and ears. They added vinegar. They called it Suzu. They let it get cold in clay bowls covered with wax paper. Brother and I ran far far away when they started to eat it. hahahahahaha
That's interesting, Jimmy, as Lore said in German, it's called Suelze -- not too different sounding in the grand scheme of things. The Italian way sounds similar to the way Beth's relatives made it and also much the way it was made in South Louisiana for sure, probably due at the time to the French/Cajun way of doing it. Though many people still make it I'm sure, especially in the country and on farms, ranches and by families that raise their own livestock, many families never made it; my mom said her mother, though she appreciated what was done by her elders, and who also liked eating hogshead cheese, would never even CONSIDER making it because of dealing with all those parts of the animals lots of us wouldn't care to deal with -- the parts Jimmy spoke of. Though it took a lot of time and work, lots of things they used to do required a lot of time and work -- but like me, I just wouldn't be the kind who can deal with those "parts" I didn't grow up handling.
I would imagine if there are those in the N.O. vicinity who still make it (and given the age of some of our residents, though lessened by Katrina, I would imagine it is). the method of making it probably encompasses all of the ways of the French, Cajun and Italian people who resided here and who inspired our unique Creole cuisine. And I don't want to leave out the Spanish, the African Americans, the Haitians and many others who all made up the "gumbo" that built our way of cooking in New Orleans and that of South Louisiana.
Every time you talk about Tina cooking her pigs feet and other pig parts, I think of hogshead cheese, especially when you describe all the work she puts in to eat those little bits of meat -- always makes me think of the little bits Beth described in the making of hogshead cheese.
For those who never tried it, it's really quite good and "normal" tasting, especially the robustly seasoned version here.
Last edited by Crybaby on Sun Sep 03, 2017 1:40 pm; edited 1 time in total
