Pork trotters to go .....

[Annemieke]

Yesterday a neighbour gave me: 8 pork trotters, 4 pig’s ears and a lot of belly fat. All frozen together in one big lump. I could only just fit it in our freezer.
I intend to make the trotters into stock to freeze in batches; cook the ears; and would like to make the fat into crackling and lovely dripping. It’s all more or less organic.
The trouble is, I have to defrost and deal with the whole lot in one go. And I would have preferred just one pig’s worth, instead of two! I’ve offered half on Streetbank (http://www.streetbank.com) and freecycle, but I don’t expect many reactions.
Has anyone got suggestions?
Do you live near here (Ilminster) and want half of it?
Can I freeze crackling, or will it keep a long time as it is?
Will it help if you add salt to the crackling?
Thanks! Love AW.

[Green Aura]

I'd make the whole lot into brawn and then freeze it again in portions. We made the head and trotters last a whole year - delicious.

[doofaloofa]

can't think of a better idea than That^

if you like brawn that is

[Annemieke]

I have never made brawn, will look up how to make it. I thought it did need the head though.

[Green Aura]

I don't see why it would be necessary. Brawn's basically a way of using up all the "unusable" bits, i.e. anything no-one wants to see like head, feet etc. The most important bit is enough trotters etc to make the gelatine and it sounds like you've got plenty of those.

We've made it several different ways some with fancy editions like wine and peppercorns. To be honest the tastiest way we've made it is cooking it really slowly so you get the last bit of goodness out of the bones and no fancy additions.

[Annemieke]

I'll look that up and bear your suggestion (no fancy additions) in mind. How long is, for you, 'cooking it really slowly''? I haven't got a slow cooker, just a wood-fired Rayburn.

[Annemieke]

What I wonder though, is: how long can you keep brawn? In my experience, pork gelatin, and pork meat in lots of gelatin, keeps longer in the fridge than I would expect. But if I make the whole lot into brawn, can I keep it in the fridge till we've eaten it all? There are only two of us.
And do I add salt? This is not mentioned in the recipe, but it would help it keep longer.

[Green Aura]

We've had it in the freezer, portioned. It's lasted us pretty much a year, until the next half pig arrived.

As for salt, I brine the pork for 2-3 days before cooking it. Then change the water, bring to the boil and cook on a very low heat, or in a slow cooker for another 24 hours to get all the goodness out of the bones. Strain, retaining the liquid and pick all the flesh - we like the skin, others remove it. Put it in a loaf tin, or something similar, put as much stock in as you want. I don't like a huge amount of jelly so we keep it to just enough to hold it all together. But we freeze the rest in ice cube trays - it's great in small quantities for enriching soups, sauces etc.

I tried it with added court bouillon but removing it was a pain and we didn't like bits of ultra-cooked, frozen and defrosted veg in the brawn one bit. So we keep it very simple and add salad or sauerkraut or whatever when we eat it. And sourdough bread - that's compulsory.

[Annemieke]

Thanks! I've copied it into my cooking file, for the day when I have lots of time and courage.