cochon du lait

[davebr]

I am planning on cooking a whole baby pig(25lbs) next week. Can I get some suggestions/recipes for couchon du lait.

[Ruth]

I am really confused. 25lbs? I would not consider anything over 15lbs a cochon du lait. I believe that in Europe even 10lbs would be the limit.

[Mayhaw Man]

Pig sizing symantics aside-

I can help, but you might as well get started with egci. A handy little tool from the friendly folks at eGullet. You got questions? They got answers!

How to Roast a Pig

Now after you read this we can talk about Cajun Microwaves and such. I am not, at all, an expert in this fine art but a number of my friends think that it is the most fun thing you can do with a pig. I will see if I can find an expert to advise me and help you out.

[davebr]

25lbs is the smallest available to me.

[davebr]

Well the pig turned out to be 15lbs. I roasted it at 425 degrees for 15 minutes then lowered the tempuature to 325 for a little under 3.5 hours. I basted the hell out of it with butter, wrapped the ears in foil, then basted it with L&P, brown sugar, salt, garlic, and cayenne the last 30 minutes. I liked it alot, I ate a fair amount of skin, the cheeks and an ear.

We also had 2 crawfish pies. It was a first for me to make. I put rice and 1 egg into my etouffe base to help it set. It came out great.

After reading the boudin thread about Poches and the Rosengarten Report about Poches, I ordered and we ate crawfish boudin, pork boudin, andouille, chaurice, hogs head cheese, crawfish sausage and smoked alligator sausage. All were great, especially the boudin. The crawfish was awesome and you could really taste the pork liver in the pork boudin. Although at first, I tried to poach the boudin gently and it immediatly started coming out of the casing. So I just nuked it. The huge chunks of garlic in the andouille was a big hit to me.

I had some left over etouffe base so I made a little mornay with smoked mozzerella and asiago, folded it together, instant dip for the french bread.

That BBQ Shrimp thread had me craving that. I called all over the city and couldnt find any shrimp with the heads still on. So I switched to frog legs. Browned in the skillet in butter super high heat. Deglazed with what ever white wine we had moved onto. Placed that in a baking dish with L&P, lemons, butter, garlic(sliced not minced), cayenne, black pepper, thyme, oregeno, and basil. I just kept thinking---Make it look like mayhaw man's BBQ Shrimp picture. That was my favorite of the night.

Tomato salad layered with local pecans, some fresh press olive oil I recently picked up in Napa, salt, pepper, balsamic and the other half of that smoked mozzerella. I contemplated not having any vegetables at all but was overruled by the women.

Foie gras jambalaya. Trinity sauteed with garlic, sage and cinnomen just for tricks. Chicken stock and a bay leaf then the rice. After it was done I diced a lobe of foie gras and folded it in. Covered the pot for 5 minutes and served it. This was some peoples favorite of the night. After the final seasoning I never did try it. Too full or drunk or both.

Louisiana strawberries, stemmed, halved and doused with sugar and the dry french rose wine we were "tasting" at the moment. Hand whipped cream and it was done.

My friends and I do this sort of baccanalia every few weeks. We usually have a theme and we always have too much food and not enough wine. I counted 22 empty bottles before going to relax on the patio. I believe there were 12 people. But hey, who's counting? The next theme will be "Dumplings". Gnoochi, spaetzle, gyoza, southern and whatever else we think of.

[PopsicleToze]

Sounds terrific!

You must have some good grocery stores if you can find frog legs but no head-on shrimp

[Mayhaw Man]

That sounds like it was alot of fun.

Did you happen to take any photos of your cooking setup?

Brooks

[davebr]

yes, there were some photos of me and "Arnold" but I am a little embarrased to show them on account of someone putting a mini top hat on him.

[joiei]

If you want more company, give us a date, some of us travel for food. And we can bring a bottle or two.