Pig ears are quite healthy because they consist of cartilaginous tissue that has a positive effect on the condition of hair, nails, skin and joints. The ears are not difficult to cook but take longer to cook. There are a few important things to know in order to get soft, tasty and odor-free ears.
Processing offal is the most important and difficult stage in the preparation of any dish with them. When we buy unprocessed pig ears, we need to clean them first. The ears should be well washed, the bristles should be shaved and burnt off.
If this seems like a difficult process, you can buy already cleaned pig ears. They only need to be washed, scraped with a knife until pink, placed in boiling water for 5 minutes and then rinsed with cold water.
After we have already cleaned the ears, they should be soaked in lukewarm water. Soaking time should be a minimum of 2 hours, but no more than 12 hours.
After soaking, the pig's ears are washed again, put in a pot and boiled for a long time.
Cooking time for pig ears is about 3-4 hours. It depends on the size of the ears and what we are going to do with the them afterward. If we are going to continue cooking them in another way - frying, boiling or roasting, we can limit the cooking time to three hours.
When the water boils, the foam that begins to form must be removed with a spoon.
To make the ears more tasty and aromatic, vegetables and spices can be added to them half an hour before they are ready. Apples can also be added to the broth for a more pleasant taste and aroma, and will also make the ears softer. The addition of soy sauce adds an appetizing color.
Shortly before they are ready, the ears are salted. This is done towards the end, because if salt is added at the beginning, the ears will absorb it and be very salty.
If you want specific recipes, you can check out these: Grilled Pig Ears, Pig Ear Soup and Great Pig Ear Appetizer.
