Warning: Pork-related posts today and tomorrow

This morning I made a brine. It is currently cooling, with the aid of some ice packs, and in a few minutes two pieces of quartered pig's head* will be soaking in it.

Tomorrow evening's blog entry will feature brawn (American name: head cheese), which may be the pinnacle of nose-to-tail eating. No waste. No disrespecting of the "lesser" parts of the animal. I have never had brawn** before, but the ingredients look good, so I suspect its scary reputation comes from its origin rather than its taste.

I can tell I'm slowly but surely acclimating to the where-food-comes-from concept, because when I thawed the pig's head and took it out of the plastic, my first thought wasn't "Gross!" but rather, "There's some gorgeous meat on this thing." Also, part of the credit goes to our meat processor, because he cleaned the head up really well and made it much less of a traumatic, visceral experience for me.

To be continued...

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* Remember, we only got half a pig. So we got half a head.

** I'm going to use the British term because it's less off-putting.