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Add page to: Add page to: Before getting carried away, it is always a good idea to check you have all of the ingredients.
If you care, each photo has an alternative text description that *most* of you will be able to access by putting your mouse over the image.
Due to the necessity of pre-ordering the pigs head, this is not a meal you can make on the spur of the minute but at $5 per head, this is a gourmet meal you can eat on a budget. A pigs head is not that hard to secure if you make a request to your butcher in advance. As a matter of fact if you contact your butcher and ask for a tongue with oesophagus and internal organs still attached so you can serve it up on to a platter for your med student mate's birthday, they will probably oblige providing you give them enough notice.
Remove any hair on head by singeing over and open flame or plucking. Scrub well (using a vegetable brush, if desired) and then sprinkle with salt, rubbing it into the skin. Rinse well with cool water; pat dry. Remove any excess fat.
Place head in a colander in the sink and pour a kettle full of boiling water over. Let cool.
Combine the 5-spice powder, salt, bean sauce and bourbon. Slash the meat on underside of head and rub half of the spice mixture into the meat. Rub the remaining spice mixture onto the skin.
Place head upright on a rack in a large baking pan. Bake at 375°F (approx. 180°C for 1½ hours. Lower heat to 325F and continue cooking for an additional 2 hours, or until the meat is cooked through, basting the skin well every 30 minutes with the honey-water mixture. (Cooking time will depend on the size of the head.) If ears begin to brown too quickly during cooking period, wrap them with foil. (It is probably worth noting that if you left the eyes in they will probably fall out during the cooking process... Mmmmmm. Still better to remove unidenified baked things from the pan than remove the easily identifiable eyes when the pig is raw).
While you wait you could do the dishes. Then again, you could amuse yourself by moving the oinker from a stuffed toy so that when the piggy-wig is placed on a table by the host, it can verbalise about its newly found crispiness.
The original recipe we got said, "When head is done, remove to platter and garnish with watercress or coriander. Chop head into pieces and serve with sweet vegetable relish or plum sauce. [I'd definitely serve with spiced salt and Chinese mustard and minced green onions for dipping too.]". Alternatively you could just wrap up the piggy-wig to take along to a Goth's belated 'All Hallows Eve" par-tay with no garnishes... because it's all a little too late to be worrying about garnishes because you were actually due at the party at eight thirteen pee-em. And... if there had time this pig would have garnished with orange.
Recipe used to create this gourmet delight was from: RecipeSource, posted by Stephen Ceideburg (From "Innards and Other Variety Meats". Jana Allen and Margret Gin. 101 Productions. San Francisco, 1974.)
All photos are originals and were taken during the cooking of the pig (thanks to SG for the loan of the camera).