Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Stuffed Pig Snouts


So today I was informed that I wasn't going to be  able to use our infamous Tongue sandwich on Brioche for a magazine shoot because another restaurant was doing a tongue dish. Why we, who specialize in pigalicious and off-cut meats dont get to use our tongue I cant understand, but i was over it as quickly as i got pissed. So what to use instead i thought to myself... Nothing on this weeks menu can outdo the tongue. The tongue is KING. 
And then it hit me... I've been toggling around with the idea of stuffing pig snouts for a week now. I've seen stuffed trotters on menus before but never snouts. is there a reason for this? I took 5 minutes to think about this question....Is it any less appealing seeing nostrils instead of tow nails? is there a big difference between toe jam and boogers? surely there are more people afraid of feet then there are who are afraid of noses. And i'm almost positive there are more nose pickers then toe jam eaters... so quite frankly, i dont see a problem with stuffing snouts. I do see a problem with sales on this one though. I'm not sure toronto is ready for stuffed snouts. I see maybe a few chefs ordering it not necessarily because they're intrigue or because it sounds delicious, but more so because, as chefs, we feel like we must order the grossest sounding dish on another chefs menu as if to say, "Hey! I'm cool, i'm a chef, i'll eat it, i'll eat anything"...when really we usually regret it and would have been better off with an arugula salad. 
Regardless, this dish is in the works. I picture a plate of cooked cabbage with lots of wine and smoked bacon with a big dirty braised pig snout stuffed with smoked ham hock and wrapped in caul fat. So the test snout has been stuffed and is awaiting a trial roasting tomorrow. 

6 comments:

Matt Ferguson said...

Wow! I'm planning on checking out your place for the first time next Friday (I've heard GREAT things). If this is on the menu then, I'll give it a try for sure.

Unknown said...

awesome! we'll see you then!

Rupert St. said...

Sounds wonderful. How did it turn out?

pofu said...

great idea

Larbo said...

Let us know what you stuffed it with and how it turned out!

Unknown said...

I had this a couple weeks ago at The Hoof and it was outstanding. It came with three snouts on cabbage and my friend and I tried our damndest to finish it all but we had to tap out and she went home with the third snout (and I'm told it made an awesome breakfast the next morning).

I picked up a couple of snouts today to try and recreate this, but I have a feeling I'll be back at The Hoof and hoping to see it on the menu again.