Name: Pigs’ Trotters Bourguignon
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 1 onion, chopped; Butter; knob of butter; 75 g (3 oz) unsmoked bacon or cooked ham, cut into 5 mm (¼ in) dice; 75–100 g (3–4 oz) button mushrooms, quartered; Sprig of thyme; 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots; 6 boned pigs’ trotters, preferably hind, singed and soaked in cold water for 24 hours; 1 bay leaf; Few black peppercorns; 75–100 g (3–4 oz) foie gras, chilled (if unavailable, increase the minced pork quantity); Bottle of red wine (for maximum flavour); 600 ml (1 pint) Chicken Stock; 300 ml (½ pint) Veal or Beef Jus; 100 g (4 oz) finely minced pork fat, chilled; 225 g (8 oz) finely minced lean pork meat, chilled; 2–3 tablespoons of thick jus (take 5–6 tablespoons of cooking liquor and reduce by half before chilling and adding); Splash each of Armagnac and Madeira (or brandy, if neither is available); Salt and pepper; 75–100 g (3–4 oz) button onions; 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme; 100 g (4 oz) chicken livers, soaked in milk for 24 hours; 1 large garlic clove, crushed; 200 ml (7 fl oz) double cream; 50 g (2 oz) butter; 1 carrot, chopped; 1 egg; 2 celery sticks, chopped

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

New British Classics

By Gary Rhodes

Published 1999

About

This dish is one I dream of becoming the ultimate ‘new classic’. Trotters are just amazing to eat. They need some care and attention, and a fair bit of work is involved, but the results merit all that – and more.

Eating pigs’ trotters is a very British thing to do. They became part of ‘street eating’ in the eighteenth century and, in Ireland, used to be a traditional pub food until not so long ago. Crubeens, salted pigs’ trotters, are a speciality of Cork.

This trotter dish