Welcome to the second guest post!  I’m letting anyone who wants to show off an offal dish submit a post with pictures.  Feel like divulging your secret beef heart tartar recipe?  Are you keen on spleen?  Let me know and we’ll post your hard work here!

Having got to the two St John’s cookbooks and being a regular at St John’s Bread and Wine it was time to get into some of the more unusual recipes. I have made the chutney, the poached chicken with aioli and the loin of pork with roast garlic and anchovy sauce. With a great butcher on the way to work who seem to be able to secure most things a pig’s head seemed like a logical next step. It’s not often you can say that.

So I scored the head for a fiver and got a couple of trotters for 50p each.

Half the head was for brawn the other half for a straight up roast. Both recipes are in the St John’s cookbooks though I changed a few bits due to what ingredients I had.

I put him in the sink and gave him a bit of a shave. There was some white stuff incrusted in his ears which I drew out.

I couldn’t believe how small the brain cavity was, I know pigs can’t exactly walk, talk and play cards but it was pretty minute.

Half the head went into a big pot with the trotters, onion, celery, pepper corns, coriander seeds, thyme and water. I cooked this on a lowish heat for about two and a half hours.

When ready I took the head out and stripped the meat off the skull. It was mainly in the cheek area and around the neck.

I chopped some of the fatty flesh from the snout and put that in the mix too, with some finely chopped parsley. The stock I strained and reduced over a strong heat for a good half-hour until it looked thick and gelatinous. I put the chopped meat mixture in an oven dish with salt, pepper and a little slug of red wine vinegar, poured enough of the stock over it and smoothed it all down. It went into the fridge for tomorrow.

Here’s a picture of Oliver’s beautiful brawn. – Ryan

For the other half I first browned some shallots and garlic in some butter in the oven. The head then went in with a couple of glasses of red wine and some water. The recipe asked for stock but I didn’t have any so I put a teaspoon of veg bouillon power in too, with some fresh parsley. This cooked for about two and half hours also.

When roasted I took the meat out, added some Dijon mustard to the liquid in the cooking tray, by now glossy with fat, and some watercress as directed. I then served it – boiled potatoes with the sauce drizzled over it with the head chopped up at table and lots of effort put into extracting the meat.

So was it worth it? As entertainment yes, as food no. The roast head was so fatty it was overwhelming and there was not much meat to be had. The meat I did get was nice though, rich like pork belly. Really, though, it was a fun bit of theatre in the kitchen and there is nothing wrong with a bit of that to brighten up your Wednesday evening.

Thank you very much, Oliver! – Ryan