was possessed by the idea of roasting a pig on july 4th. upon flying back to chicago on the 3rd, stopped by a butcher on the way down from o’hare and picked up a 60 lb pig (rooted out & co-signed by 1 w.h. esq, lugged up the stairs by runi & gale).
brined it in the bathtub the night before; traced white streaks of salt between the stove and the bathroom down the hall; kept the candles burning through the night. turned its head into alignment with its neck and looked with cold and hesitating sympathy at its glazed eye.the next morning. rubbed olive oil, salt and pepper across the smoothness of its nose, the wrinkles around its neck and ears, and the disintegrating skin on its forehead. put its head in the oven, its heart in the fridge with the liver. stuffed sliced apples and chopped basil into its hollow rib cage. sowed its belly shut with meat needles, a mallet, and butchers twine.upon finding the spit much more rickety and small than advertised online. took its haunches off with a mallet and a knife, and put it on a separate grill. weighed the spit down with bags of unmixed cement and put its torso on the rotisserie, whose motor soon broke. finished its roast lying on a foil-covered grate above the fire pit. the meat turned out fragrant and delicious, praised be/braised by jj&j.
sent people off with bags of meat at the end of the night. pulled off the remainders with hands. took the head and chest back home. stuffed the chest in the fridge and hid the zip-locked head in the produce bin.the next day. put the head and ribs into a boiling pot. stared dolefully at the stiff tongue, rippled mouth-roof, eyeball globules, and cartilaginous snout. considered preparing them separately but didn’t have the guts (ha). threw them into the pot. washed, de-veined (struggling surprisedly with the rigid and stubborn arteries) and chopped up the heart. and the liver. stir-fried them while still wet, resulting in pieces too tough to be tasty. threw them in the broth. the pot simmered into the night.the third day. fished out the bones, poked the brains out of the skull with fingers and a chopstick (added the rich mush to the magic soup), soaked the bones with water and soap, and laid them out in the sun.that evening, a great gale put the hog maw in a pot on the back porch where it still yawns today. speaking in flowers.
hog maw 