The Mystery of Pickled Pig Parts

Dedicated to sherri, Ms. blackliterature.com

Sherri, Ms. Blackliterature.com, left an extremely nostalgic comment on my "Something Special" post...


"...I'd go so far as to eat one of those pig feet from the corner store to relive just one of those summer visits with my grand parents."

I shivered as if hit with a blast of cold air when I saw that comment...

She was talking about pickled pig feet. You know, you use to be able to buy them at the neighborhood bootleg corner store. They were always on the counter, near the cash register, in a big gallon glass jar, floating around in a pinkish liquid...

Eww...

Do you know they still sell those... in the same big glass jars?

I have to admit... I haven't seen them in any of the bootleg corner stores I've ran into recently.

And I must say too that I haven't been looking for them, either. It has been a good 25 years since I had some pickled pig feet.

And apparently there is a difference between "pickled pig feet" and "pickled pig knuckles"...

(What the hell is the difference?)

Never mind... I don't EVEN want to know...

This particular company, Hannah's, sell the pickled pig feet for $21.00 a jar, while the pickled pig knuckles are sold for $27.00 a jar....

So obviously there's a difference...

Personally, I think I'd rather have a pig foot rather than a pig knuckle. Seems like there would be more meat on a pig foot rather than a pig knuckle, and--

(shoot, WHAT am I saying? That crap is nasty!)

And then I was chatting over email with Super Shoe Queen Blogger Serenity 23 and she made a statement to the affect of "Nothing beats pig lips and chips!"

*Crickets*

I questioned S23 about this. She said they (pig lips) were hairy, which REALLY confused me. But she wouldn't answer my questions about whether there was such a thing as ACTUAL pig lips. I think I pissed her off because she screamed out at me over email...

I DON'T KNOW, LADYLEE!

Yeah, she was pissed.

So I wondered around work asking my fellow employees if they knew what pig lips were?

The common responses:

Who?
Did you say 'What are big lips'?
Is that some type of disease??

Sunshine, my bootleg manuscript editor, who is also from "the country", explained that pig lips were what they were: pig lips.



Damn, wouldn't you know that they also sell pickled pig lips.

Disgusting!

I found a website, The Chitterling Site (shut up, don't laugh), that had a great recipe for pickled pig feet.

Pickled Pigs' Feet

Ingredients:

4 pigs' feet (split in half)
3 cups cider vinegar1 onion (sliced)
1 tsp crushed red pepper
3 whole cloves
1 bay leaf

Wash the pigs feet thoroughly. Place in a pot with coldwater along with the vinegar. Bring to a boil and skim off the foam. Add other ingredients and cook over mediumheat until thoroughly done (approximately 2 1/2 hours).Store in a container along with the liquid. If you havetoo much liquid, remove the cooked pigs feet and boil itdown a little. Refrigerate. Serve cold.

Yo Sherri, go head on and cook those up and let me know how it all worked out for ya!

And I hope you find a nice size glass jar to store those pickle pig feet in!!! I bet they would look just lovely on your kitchen counter!