Pig tails are real easy to find here in Beaufort, SC. Nearly every supermarket has them all the time. It ain't yuppie food; it's mostly bought by poor African-Americans who grew up with pig tails, feet and ears--also snout, shank, jowl, etc. It's a whole way of life, and any southern soul or gullah cookbook will have something to do with pigs tails. Mostly people use them as flavorings and a bit of meat supplement for collards or other coarse greens. The old mamas will tell you "scrub n' stew." Scrub up the tail to be sure its clean and stew it. (If you said braise, they would look around for a mule.) Then you pull out the tails before you serve, pick off the meat (not all that damn much) and put it back in the dish. The kids will take the tails and suck and chew them but the menfolk expect the meat to be picked. There's lots of picking with gullah and southern soul food. You pick the crabs, pick oysters, pick pork, pull pork, pick chicken, pick feathers and if you pick your cook right the food is really tasty. This way will probably be gone in 10-20 years. There are less and less blacks as a percentage and the markets more and more reflect the white taste (not much into obscure pork parts.) Younger people, black or white, are in more of a hurry, and lack time and inclination for the hand work involved in the old recipes. There is much about the old ways that nobody--black or white--misses at all, but the end of this simple, frugal and tasty cuisine as a living language will be a sad thing.
