SC - bourreys

[Philip & Susan Troy]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 11/19/00 1:52:07 PM Eastern Standard Time, troy at asan.com
> writes:
> 
> << the cartilage in the
>  ears doesn;t get especially soft, unless perhaps the rules change after
>  boiling them for perhaps 12 hours or something; I've never tried that.  >>
> 
> Is it possible that  cooking for , say, 4 hours would reduce the ear to a
> gelatinous substance? Could your 12 hr. time have been slightly exxagerated?
> I know that the cartilage on the ends of  beef  and other bones such as the
> end of a chicken breast often become very gelatinous with no discernable
> 'crunchyness' after prolonged cooking. . OTOH, less cooking time produces the
> results that you  mention.

It's possible; 12 hours is just a number I pulled out of the air, but it
was also a number of hours I'd never cooked pigs' ears for. Cooked for
approximately three hours, they're still crunchy, as far as I've seen.
Let's consider some indeterminate time between 3 and 12 hours, but I
suspect more than 4 would be needed if it were to work at all. 

For example, when you make stock from red meat bones, say beef or veal,
yes, the cartilage does soften somewhat, but mostly what happens is the
collagen attaching it to the bones dissolves, and the cartilage falls
off the bone. I think actual cartilage is, to some extent, non-soluble. 

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com