Smoked Pig's Head

[Swindon_Ed]

I so felt like cooking something a bit different this weekend and after seeing Pit Cue's version of this on Twitter i felt that i needed to have a try at this myself.

So i went to my butcher and ordered me one of these...


I'm not going to do anything with it till later, but i'll update this post with some better pictures of the head and let you know more about what preperation i'll do to it before i put it on the smoker.

It's a bit later, i've now washed the skin with hot water and shaved any remaining hair off with a knife.


Here's a view of all the meat that i'm hoping to get out of the head. As you can see there is a lot of fat in this meat so i'm hoping to get this to melt and have some great pulled pork from this. although it needs a bit of a wash first.


I decieded that i'd treat the front and back of the head differently. On the back i've used some of my normal pork rub.


With the front of the pigs head i've decided to just rub it with oil and sail to see if i can get some good crackling from it.


I'm just waiting for my smoker to get upto temp' and then i'll leave it to smoker through the night and i'll update you on how it's going in the morning.

[keith157]

Some good eating on them there heads , especially the cheeks/jowls or bath chaps(?). Good luck I doubt I'd get it passed the missus

[Steve]

How did it go Ed?

I've fancied doing a pig's head for a while, just never got round to it.

Incidentally how much did you pay for the head?

[Swindon_Ed]

It worked out really well Steve.

I cooked it quite hot 320-350f which looking back next time i'll cook it a bit slower as the skin split down the middle of the head and the skin still didn't get crispy.



Although the only reason for cooking slower would be for apperance as there was nothing wrong with the meat, it was lovely and moist and i was supprised by how much good meat i managed to get out of it, even if it did take a bit of time to pick it all off. It does have a slightly differnt texture to normal pulled pork as the meat on the face seems to be in little sacks of skin which don't render down so i chopped it all up and it was really good. Sadly i didn't get a chance to get a picture of this but i had eight people over and there was enough for everyone to get a bit.

Incidentally how much did you pay for the head?

The head cost £4.00 which i thought was a bit of a bargin.

Normally i will judge the sucess of a cook by asking myself would i cook it again, and i've got to say i'll definaltly be cooking this again.

[keith157]

Looks really nice, all it needs is an apple
Some breeds Berkshire for example won't give you good cracking at all.

[Steve]

That looks amazing the split head makes it look evil.

[Toby]

Looks fantastic!