Cooking a stew of pork head at home

Everyone who has ever gone on a hike knows that the main food of a tourist is a stew.With its help you can cook both rich soup and hearty main course, and if it is not possible to make a fire, you can eat it cold. It is very convenient to prepare such canned goods for the winter even if there is no access to the stove and refrigerator, since they can be stored in any closet or box, and they can be warmed both in a conventional microwave oven and over an open fire. Unfortunately, today it is quite difficult to find a quality stew on the shelves of the store, and if this happens, the price of such goods is too high.

A stew is a dish made from meat or poultry that have been stewed over low heat for a long time. Most often, such a dish is preserved in sterilized jars and stored for a long time, however, it can be eaten fresh. The stew can be made from pork, beef, chicken, rabbit and other meats, as well as from a mixture of several kinds or with the addition of various cereals. Such a product is already ready and is added at the very end during the cooking process, in order to warm up and not to boil or roast.

In large industrial production, stew is most often packaged in tin containers, which have become one of the symbols of the Soviet era. Often such goods can be found in military rations or among members of various expeditionary or tourist trips. At home, stew is packed in glass jars with tin lids and often used as a semi-finished product, when you need to cook something very satisfying, and there is not enough time for a full stew of fresh meat.

The step-by-step process of cooking a stew of semi-finished product is quite laborious and requires precise observance of proportions and time, however, the result in the form of several cans with a practically prepared dinner or lunch is worth it.

Most often, homemade stew is cooked from pork, namely from pork head. This is due to the fact that pork is fatter and more nutritious meat than chicken or turkey, while it is cheaper than beef or veal. In addition, the pig head is one of the cheapest parts of the whole carcass, which can be purchased. And jelly-forming components, which are contained in her bones, will transform the frozen in a jar of fat into a kind of brawn. This will allow the product to remain longer in a closed jar, sheltered from direct sunlight.

It is best to buy pork head from farmers or in large livestock farms. Direct purchase guarantees the freshness of chilled products and the absence of numerous frosts and thaws. When buying, you should pay attention to the color of the meat, it should be white and pink at the cut and without dark spots. When pressing on the edge, the pulp should release 1-2 drops of liquid, but not more.

One of the simplest and most frequently used recipes for preparing homemade stews involves cooking a large amount of the product from a large pig's head with cropped tongue, cheeks, ears and piglet. If there is a large pan in which to fit a large head, then cook it whole. The following ingredients are required for cooking:

• 5 kg of pork head;
• 2 large onions;
• 5-6 teeth of garlic;
• 10 black peppercorns;
• 3-4 bay leaves;
• salt, pepper to taste.

First of all, rinse the meat thoroughly and soak it for 30-40 minutes in warm but not hot water.After this, once again thoroughly wash the pieces of the pig's head and cut out all the excess parts from it, if there are any (eyes, brain, tongue, ears, piglet). Chunks of meat and bones are placed in a large saucepan and poured with cool water so that it covers 2-3 cm of the product. A medium heat is set on the stove, the liquid is brought to a boil and the meat is cooked for about 8–10 minutes. After this boiling water is drained, the meat is poured with fresh cool water and returns to the stove.

Peeled peel is added to the broth, but the onion not cut into pieces and the meat is cooked under a closed lid for at least 3.5–4 hours. An hour before the dish is ready, you need to add bay leaf, peppercorns and other spices. Cooked and slightly cooled pieces of pork head are disassembled into the flesh, bones and skin, and all edible pieces are laid out in a separate bowl. To them is added cut into small cubes or crushed garlic. The mixture is decomposed into clean sterilized jars and poured into the remaining broth, filtered through cheesecloth or a fine sieve. The container is filled to the brim and twisted with tin lids; after cooling, the cans are removed into the pantry or in the refrigerator.

In order to speed up the cooking process or to exclude from it the constant presence and control of the cook, you can use various kitchen appliances, such as a slow cooker. You will need a large kitchen assistant with a bowl that can hold a volume of 5 liters or more. The preparation will require a similar set of previous ingredients, while it is best to add some pork pulp to the pork head - this will further speed up the cooking process and at the same time make the finished dish more nutritious.

• 4 kg of pork head;
• 1 kg of pork pulp;
• 2 onions;
• 5–6 cloves of garlic;
• 10 black peppercorns;
• 3-4 leaves of laurel;
• salt and pepper to taste.

As in the classic pork stew recipe, the meat is soaked for 30–40 minutes, after which it is washed and cut into smaller pieces. Unlike conventional saucepans, it is better not to lay meat and skin in the slow cooker, so it will need to be removed before cooking. In the bowl of the multicooker, the sliced ​​head and pulp are laid out and the water is poured so that it covers the entire contents of the bowl completely.

To begin, pork must be boiled, for this set the mode of "cooking" and a timer for 10 minutes. The first boiling water will have to be drained and filled with water in the bowl, and rinse the meat pieces thoroughly with running water again. The second time, you can add peeled onions to the meat and set the “quenching” mode on the machine for 3 hours. At this time, you can do other things, as the multicooker does not require constant presence and control. After the timer has worked, you need to add spices to the broth, and set the "quenching" mode for another 1 hour. To achieve readiness, the dish is also mixed with garlic, packed in cans and filled with strained broth.

An autoclave is a special kitchen appliance in which cooking takes place at a pressure several times higher than atmospheric. Because of this, the process is much faster, and the yield of the finished product increases. The main difference in cooking technology in an autoclave is that the raw product is unfolded on the container, and the container is already laid in this kitchen unit. This allows you to use clean jars without prior sterilization, as it will occur immediately at the time of preparation. For the recipe will require:

• 5 kg of pork head;
• ready-mixed spice for stew (you can mix in equal proportions of cumin, dill and coriander);
• 3 large onions;
• salt and pepper to taste.

The pig's head is thoroughly washed, the meat, cartilage and veins are cut off and cut into small pieces. Onions are cut into large cubes or half rings and laid out in glass jars. From above onion laid out the meat and carefully dressed with spices.No need to knead or ram meat, the contents should be laid out at a height of 2-3 cm from the edge of the jar. Roll up the cans with tin lids, put in an autoclave and fill with water so that it covers the container at least 3-4 cm above.

Close the appliance, heat to 110 degrees and leave the dish cooked for 40–50 minutes. After this time, remove the finished stew and leave on the table until it cools completely, and then store it in a pantry or refrigerator.

In this way, it is convenient to prepare a dish that, in addition to regular meat, includes any cereal, for example, buckwheat or barley. A can of such a product will represent a full-fledged lunch, which is just enough to warm up. If the stew is cooked in a regular saucepan or a slow cooker, then the cereal should be cooked separately and then mixed with the finished meat.

On how to properly butcher the pig head, see the following video.