Cochino anyone? - (Guatemala)
| 09 December 2009
As a foodie, I often find myself looking at a random ingredient and thinking, “Hmm, I wonder what I could make with that?”
A tangerine? Maybe I could make that into a jam with some fresh ginger.
White asparagus? Maybe a souffle with some ricotta.
But there are a few items that do not conjure up such culinary fantasies. One of those is cow hooves or the giant pig’s head pictured here. I know Boars Head has become a popular brand of luncheon meat, but I don’t think they are insinuating the presence of boar’s head is what makes their Genoa salami so tasty. (At least, I hope not.)
But here in Guatemala, these two ingredients each play a starring role in two of the country’s soup dishes. Sopa de pata has a clear beef broth with ground-up cow hooves (patas) mixed in. Mothers like to feed this dish to their children because the ground up hooves contain a lot of gelatin for their kid’s growing bones. Being a fan of chewing chicken bones, I am not bothered by the idea of eating bone, as I would prefer it to eating many animal organs that are also served in these parts. If it weren’t for the occasional piece of tripe in the bowl, I would like the soup even more, as it is made with yucca, sweet corn and sometimes bananas and string-beans. If only I could un-invite the stomach lining, we could all have a happy soup party.
Continuing from head to toe, or in this case from toe to head, the pig’s head is the cornerstone of one of the country’s traditional soups, revolcado. Revolcado, which means taken down (as in a tackle), is a thick gravy-like soup that features the ground-up remains of a whole pig’s head. Yes, picture Porky Pig being decapitated and then his head being forced through a meat-grinder and into a steaming pot of soup and voila, you have revolcado!
To make this tasty treat, the pig’s head is first boiled and then minced to perfection.
The brain is not included in the recipe, but everything else is swimming in there somewhere.
The tongue? Yep.
The cheek meat? Uh-huh.
Stomach lining? You got it.
Just like that old Prego commercial, “It’s in there!”
Though it is a bit gruesome to watch someone dice up Miss Piggy’s pretty face, I would rather eat unassuming bits of cranial matter in my soup than seeing an entire boiled pig’s face emerge from a cauldron of soup. The term cauldron is especially fitting in this case, as any soup whose primary ingredient is “One Pig’s Head” sounds like it could pass as a witch’s stew. “Okay, I’ve got one head of pig, but where did I put those frogs eyes and lizard livers?”
The soup is made in family kitchens but is also a mainstay at food markets. Here in Antigua, I was able to see the pig’s head in one part of the market and then eat revolcado in another part of the market. “Mmm, that’s fresh pig head!” Revolcado has a very rich flavor, almost overbearing but not quite. There are lots of chunks of....I guess meat in the soup but I’m not too comfortable eating pieces of pig that I cannot identify. I applaud the Guatemalans for their resourcefulness in using a part of the animal that many cooks would simply throw out, but I must say I am not too enthused to eat random chunks of a pig’s head chunks in my soup bowl. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of our readers called this soup Revoltado instead of Revolcado.
