Pig's feet (trotters) are pickled sometimes. And pickled pork is used in red beans and rice...
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Pickle Meat or Pickled Pork
Before the days of refrigeration and commercial curing plants, Pickle Meat or Pickled Pork was a staple in the Creole Kitchen. From what I understand, it's still fairly easy to find in New Orleans. Some people will not make Red Beans and Rice without it, and I have to say, the best pot of Red Beans that I've made, was made with Pickled Pork. The meat is so tender from the brine, that it just breaks down in the pot, leaving behind all of that wonderful flavor. It's a cinch to make, now that we don't have to do 25 lb. batches. Long ago the pork from a very recently butchered hog would be cured in large batches, and kept in barrels.
Red beans and rice was traditionally made on Monday in the NO area. The beans with onion and celery, spices and left-over pork and/or the pork bones from Sunday's dinner was cooked together in a pot and served over rice. It's a old custom when ham was the traditional Sunday meat and Monday was washday. You could put a pot of it on the stove to simmer while you were busy scrubbing the clothes. It's still offered as a Monday lunch special in a lot of NO restaurants today.
__________________ Most of all, cook from the heart, and you’ll never be lonely when the dinner bell rings! - Chef Robert Irvin