Offal Recipes

© Copyright 1995-2023, Clay Irving <clay@panix.com>, Manhattan Beach, CA USA

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A Healthy Jar of Trotters Gear

Recipe from: Adapted from Beyond Nose to Tail by Fergus Henderson and Justin Piers Gellatly

Alluded to in the previous book, but now fully fledged, it now has a name and a place in every kitchen. This unctuous, giving gastronomic tool will become all chefs' and cooks' friend, finding untold uses in the kitchen. No fridge should be without its jar of Trotter Gear.

6 pig's trotters
2 onions, peeled
2 carrots, peeled
2 sticks celery
2 leeks, slit in half lengthways and cleaned
1 head of garlic
a bundle of thyme
a handful of peppercorns
½ bottle sercial madeira
enough chicken stock to cover the trotters

Place the trotters in a large casserole. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then drain. This removes the initial scum given off by the trotters.

Now place the blanched trotters back in the pot with the vegetables, thyme, peppercorns and Madeira and cover with stock. Cover and place in a gentle oven. Cook for at least 3 hours, until the trotters are totally giving. At this point, strain the cooking liquor and keep. When the trotters have cooled enough to handle (but don't let them go cold, as they become much harder to deal with), pick all the flesh, fat and skin off them, tearing the skin into shreds. Add to the cooking liquor, seal in a jar and refrigerator.

You now have Trotter Gear, nuduals of giving wobbly trotter captured in a splendid jelly. One can sense its potential even now.

Note:
The Sercial is the last of the grapes to be harvested in September: it produces the driest Madeira Wines.

This cultivar is the whitest and softest of the Madeira Wines. It yields the driest of the wines produced on the island, ranging from a full golden to a very pale colour, and requires a substantial period of aging to be best appreciated. They grow at the highest of the cultivated altitudes, on soil with volcanic rock and ripen at the end of the grape harvest period - about the last two weeks of September.