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If you've never eaten pig’s head or head cheese or pork
jowls, this might seem like an odd thing to order of your own free will. But
those of you who know and love this cut of meat will understand completely.
Traditionally, this dish is made with the entire boned pig’s
head so that what is left looks a whole lot like one of those pullover rubber
Halloween masks. You will have the face and snout, as well as the ears and
maybe even the tongue.
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| Big, thin slices of jowl |
My husband used to love making different pig’s head dishes
at home – his favorite being a dish he concocted of the thinly sliced meat
stir-fried with satay sauce – but since I was always given the job of cleaning
the damn thing, I rebelled after about the third head.
Back then, you see, most
of the hair would be gone by the time the butcher handed over this big bundle, but there would still be enough bristles to cause me great
anxiety, and then there was the problem of how to successfully swab out the
ears and nostrils. Many Q-tips and gallons of sudsy water later, I’d have a
shiny face looking back at me, but this press gang sort of labor killed any
appetite along the way and led to grim thoughts of how my life had led this sad task of swabbing out a rubbery snout in a kitchen that supplied only cold tap water.
My husband is a happy man once again (and I a happy woman) because I've found that
pig jowls are not only provided clean here in the States, but they are the nicest cut of the
head, with thick layers of meat interwoven with white fat and a good layer of
skin on top. This cut looks for all the world like a great piece of pork belly,
which is why so many places treat it like fresh bacon, such as the Italians
with their guanciale. In fact,
consider using pork jowl interchangeably with pork belly, as it generally is
quite cheap, since few (white) people know what they’re missing.
Big thin slices (of a pig’s head)
Dàbáopiàn 大薄片
Dàbáopiàn 大薄片
Meat:
1 pig jowl (cheek)
with the skin attached, about 2 pounds
Filtered water as
needed
¼ cup white liquor
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| Like the best fresh bacon |
4 green onions,
trimmed
¼ cup thinly sliced
ginger
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons whole
Sichuan peppercorns
1½ teaspoons fennel seeds
Sauce:
1 to 2 red jalapeno
peppers
3 green onions,
trimmed
6 cloves garlic,
peeled
6 tablespoons regular
soy sauce
6 tablespoons
balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons toasted
sesame oil
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| Side view of the raw jowl |
1. Rinse the jowl and pat dry. If there are hairs still
poking out of the skin, don’t worry about them, since they can be easily dealt
with once the pork skin has been cooked. Place the jowl in a medium saucepan
and cover with tap water. Bring the water to a boil and simmer for about 10
minutes, then dump out the water and scum, rinse the jowl and saucepan, and
return the jowl to the saucepan. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring the
water to a boil, lower the heat to a gentle simmer, and cook the jowl for
around 3 hours uncovered, adding more water as necessary. Check to see if the
jowl is done by poking a chopstick through the skin into the meat; there should
be absolutely no resistance, but the meat and skin should not be falling apart,
either. Let the meat cool in the broth and then remove the jowl to a clean
covered container. Refrigerate it overnight and up to maybe 4 days. (The broth can be
strained and used for something else.)
2. Before you do anything else, pull out any errant hairs at
this point, since they will be easy to remove with either tweezers (get the big
Chinese kind at a market or kitchen supply store, if possible) or a paring
knife; if you’re using the knife, put your thumb on one side of a hair and the
knife on the other, and then pull up. Once that is done, cut the jowl into very
long, thin slices while it is still chilled and easy to handle, arrange it on a
platter, and then let the meat and silky fat come to room temperature before serving.
3. While the jowl is slowly warming up, prepare the sauce: Stem
and seed as many peppers as you like and cut them into tiny dice. Chop the
onions and garlic into tiny pieces, as well, and place all of these aromatics
into a small work bowl. Stir in the soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. Adjust
seasoning and then either serve the sauce alongside the meat or pour it over
the room temperature slices right before serving.
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| No longer a weird cut of meat |
Tips
Pork jowls – also called cheeks – are not always available
in Western butcher shops. I ask my butcher to set one aside for me when they
bring in a whole hog. As always, the quality of the meat is essential to the
success of this dish, so aim for pigs that were raised and butchered with care.
The white liquor, Sichuan peppercorns, and ginger work to
tame the natural gaminess of this cut of pork. What you should end up with is a
mildly flavored meat that is gently seasoned.
As with French headcheese, this dish benefits from a tart,
aromatic sauce. The chili peppers can be as hot or not as you and your family
likes. I’d caution against adding sugar to the sauce since that acidity is what
perks up the palate and cuts the fatty elements down to size.
You can, of course, use a whole boned pig’s head here; just
realize that you will have around 7 pounds of pork to contend with, so multiply
the ingredients by around 3.
