Don't turn up your nose, they're amazing. Slow roasted in a jerk and ginger beer marinade/sauce and then pulled and eaten in a bun or on a bed of mash, just superb.
Mark, my local butcher and owner of The Histon Chop Shop sourced these for me. You've no idea how big a pig cheek is, probably 6 inches square. Even better than that they're cheap, really cheap. I guess that comes with us Brits not wanting to know we're eating something like that. More fool you, you'll be getting them in your sausages, meatballs, stuffing, you just wont know about it. Get over it. My friend Gwyn tells me that the asian staff on the tankers he works on fight over who is going to get the pigs cheeks and I now know why.
Do you like belly pork? Do you like it slow roasted? Then you'll love pigs cheeks. It's just as fatty but so cheap.
So I cooked mine in a jerk seasoning. The idea was I would do some pulled pork with them and it worked. They were lovely and spicy in a bap.
Ingredients:
- 2 Pigs cheeks (well you wouldn't want Mr Piggy to look wonky)
- 2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp cayenne
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 0.25 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 cloves (ground)
Method:
- Mix all the spices and then cover the pig cheeks with this rub and put in a plastic food bag to marinade for several hours (overnight is best).
- Fire up your Big Green Egg to about 160C and roast the cheeks in a pan over an indirect heat for 4 hours.
- After cooking allow the cheeks to rest.
- Pull the cheeks apart using 2 forks discarding larger bits of fat.
- Add the meat to a bap.
Serve with apple sauce or good French mustard. Yum.