SC - bourreys

[Mordonna22 at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/19/2000 12:25:13 AM US Mountain Standard Time, 
owner-Beatrix writes:

<<  Given the choice in a meat recipe I'd
 lean toward the diaphragm more that ears, they being nothing more than
 cartilage. I'm not a word scholar by any means, but why would you put pork
 ears in a stew- even chopped small, wouldn't they be kinda chewy?
 Beatrix >>

It may have been for the thickening property of the cartilage.  I know that 
when my German-American in-laws butchered a hog, the entire head went into 
the pot with all the organ meats, thusly:

The hog was killed, then hung by the heels from a yoke.  
Boiling water was poured over the carcass, and it was scraped to remove all 
the hair.  An incision was made around the anus, and down the center front, 
and the organs and intestines carefully removed and reserved.
The head was tilted back and removed.
The skull was split open and the brains, tongue, windpipe, ears, and eyes 
were removed.  
The skull was washed, and placed in a large pot with enough water to just 
cover it over a hot fire.  Sometimes , if we sweren't pickling them, the feet 
were cleaned and added along with the skull.
The brains were reserved to be served scrambled with eggs for breakfast the 
next morning as a special treat for the head of the house.
The eyes were discarded.
The windpipe was washed and thrown in the pot with the head.
The ears and tongue were washed and scraped, and thrown into the pot.
The organ meats were prepared thusly:
The lungs ("lights"), and spleen ("sweetbread" or "milt") were simply washed 
and thrown into the pot with the head.
The liver was washed, and the gall bladder carefully removed before it went 
into the pot.
The kidneys were washed, then split open and an internal membrane removed 
before they went in.
Five or six pounds of onions were peeled and coarsely chopped and added, with 
a handfull of coarse salt and one of black pepper, and four or five dried 
chiles.
This pot was kept boiling, being stirred frequently by a young man with a 
boat paddle, adding just enough water occasionally to keep it from sticking, 
until the rest of the hog had been prepared for storage and put away.  As the 
butchers prepared the rest of the meat, any scraps, such as extra skin and 
fat trimmed from the hams, were thrown into the pot .
At the end, after the lard was rendered, and the sausage made, and the hams 
put away, the bones were lifted from the pot.  Any meat remaining on the 
bones was removed and returned to the pot.  
The pot was only removed from the fire when the contents had been cooked into 
a mush, with nothing retaining its original shape or texture.  By this time,  
most of the cartilage in the ears had been broken down to the point that it 
simply acted as a thickening agent for the mush. 
This pot meat was served hot over rice as the evening meal for the butchers.  
Any that was left over was canned in glass jars, because it does not keep 
well in the freezer.
Some of our neighbors did it differently, though, using the head and feet as 
a basis for souse meat, which was made with a sour spice mix involving 
vinegar and a horrid smell.  The cartiliginous parts served to make a gel to 
bind the souse.  I'm sorry, but I was never able to endure the process 
because of the odor, so I don't have a recipe for souse meat.  I'm sure 
others on the list can accomodate there.

Mordonna The Cook