These are pig's cheeks. Currently in Waitrose they are 6.99 a kilo so not expensive as meat goes. Still more expensive than they used to be but people are realising how good they are. I'm not sure what to compare the texture to. It's sticky, I can't think of any other way to describe it. There is just under half kilo there. Three quids worth. For me they are best deep fried. They can also be salted, baked and glazed.
That's for another day perhaps. Today I'm going to do them deep fried with sage and onion. First of all you have to get the egg to stick to the meat. A good coating of flour does this. These were juicy enough to take the flour without any other moisture. If they were drier I'd have run them under the tap. As you can see I'm using stuffing mix to coat them. If they were sold as seasoned breadcrumbs they'd sell other than at Christmas.
So here's a beaten egg and some stuffing mix ready to do the coating. Nothing clever there.
Oh I should have said before get your deep fat fryer warmed up. 170 is about right. Too hot and you will explode the coating off the meat. Not hot enough and the internal water will not boil giving the fat the opportunity to enter the meat.
Coat each piece in the egg, then the stuffing mix. Make sure the egg coats all the meat, it is going to seal it while it is frying. Don't overload the fryer, you will drop the temperature too much. I do 3 at a time letting the temperature recover before adding the next one. They need to just brown. That's about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile get the oven warm. This will finish the cooking. 130 is fine.
This is what they look like straight out of the fryer. I let them drain a but before I put them in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes. Cook them on a rack, If they sit in their juices they will have a soggy bottom. Turn them at half time.
You could eat them now but I'm having mine cold tomorrow with a hearty potato and onion hash. These are fantastic picnic food too. You can also slice and pan fry them and serve them as a starter with a poncey salad. You don't have to tell your guests where they came from until they have complimented you on your culinary expertise...
