For all of you who can’t jam enough pig in your pie-hole, here’s another little treat from the Howells, NE Centennial Cookbook. I thought this would be a nice treat for my former chef, Ryan Farr, now at the helm of 4505 Meats here in San Francisco. (N.B. non-Latin, non-bay area residents, follow this link – chicharrones) My sidekick and I dropped by chef Ryan’s workshop last night with a bag of these little gems and added a little fuel to the pork-crazed fire. If only I had made them with Ryan’s pork candy… Next time for sure. Enjoy!
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- Fried Pig Fat!
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- Atkins Approved
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- Yileds about 4 dozen little porkers
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- Here’s the scoop –
A few little notes – The recipe as written was too dry for me. I added a little more dairy. I also took the following liberties; I added lemon zest instead of lemon extract because I like zest (and we didn’t have any extract) but I replaced the lemon extract with vanilla, these cookies seemed to want a little cinnamon (so i gave it to them) and I also nudged in a little ground chipotle peppers (seemed like a good idea). The recipe asks for nuts, raisins, or coconut. I caved, and put all three in. When you bake these at home, be sure to press them pretty flat (like 1/4″ or so) before baking as they will rise quite a bit, but not spread. Right from the oven they are really crisp and chewy. As the even out, they become soft, and retain a nice toothsome quality with an occasional little piggy crunch. Oinkers Away!
As I remember it, there are a lot of family farms that raise pork in the Howells area. This seems like a creative and resourceful way to help make sure that no part of the animal gets wasted. Or, it could be some home cook’s answer to ‘what the hell am I going to do with all of THAT?’. Either way, we benefit from Mrs. Mayme Hilz’s contribution to the cause.
Eat Well and Be Well -
-Scotty
