Illegitimate Sun

Have you ever wondered how much meat you can get from a roasted pig’s head?

Neither have I.

But, I happened to find out. It all began with a trip to our favorite Asian grocery store…

I grabbed another bag of roasted pork from T and T Supermarket.

You have to realize, that these bags are roasted pork are wrapped in multiple, opaque plastic bags. You can’t really see what is in them in great detail.

This time, I had the choice of two bags of differing size. Both were the same price of $3.63 Canadian.

I grabbed the bigger of the two bags as it was larger and felt the fleshiest.

Imagine my surprise when I opened it at home and it contained a whole pig’s head!

Not to be deterred by a little unexpected snout action, I broke out the carving board and knives.

Here are some roasted pig head fun facts:

• A slender, flexible knife is required for getting the most meat off the head. Being flexible is especially important for slicing the meat under the cheek bones and around the ear sockets.
• A serrated knife works best for slicing the tough pig skin.
• Roasted pig’s heads do not come with eyeballs, but you feel like it’s staring at you anyway.
• Pig lips are tasty.
• Some of the meat will be fatty. I recommend using these in soups or stews for added flavor. (I’ll be adding some of mine to black-eyed peas.)
• I have no desire to eat snout.
• You can get 6-8 serving portions of meat off of a small pig’s head.
  
• When stripped of meat, a pig’s head will look like this.
  
  The whole process will take about a half hour.

This was not the way I planned to spend my evening, but it was interesting nonetheless.