It was too good to last. Apparently, Waitrose is to introduce pig's trotters to its shelves. Damn the credit crunch. For years I've been quietly tucking into breast of lamb, shin of beef, ox cheek and pigs's cheek, trotter and calf's foot, brisket and skirt, the cheapest of the cheap cuts. Cheaper than chips. Practically given away, they were. Sometimes they were given away, trotters especially.
OK, they needed a bit of cooking - long and slow, mostly - but they more than repaid the effort involved in terms of flavour, richness and texture. I mean, these were the connoisseur's cuts. While the hoi polloi went all out for fillet and chop, rib and loin, those who really treasure their meat went for what were called the "secondary" cuts.
Not that chefs turned their noses up at them. Long before Fergus Henderson introduced the high concept of nose-to-tail eating, the great Pierre Koffman started it all off, stuffing the trotter with sweetbreads and morels. Marco Pierre White got in on the act with an homage to Koffman. Personally, I always thought that Paul Heathcote's variation, with ham hock and sage, was by far the most elegant and satisfying. Pig's cheeks had their advocates, too. Richard Neat and Tom Aikens, Michelin-starred chefs both, tricked out the pig's cheek as part of a dish involving the whole pig's head, and charged an arm and a leg for it. The rot really started when Heston Blumenthal gave pork belly a makeover, cooking it for 60 hours and winning three stars in the process.
Before you could say "Ear, nose and throat", belly pork was on every suave and sophisticated menu, and that wasn't bad for a chef's gross profit margin. And now everyone's going to be at it. The salad days of the cheap-cut connoisseur are numbered.
Inflation has already crept in. Waitrose is charging 90p a pound for trotters. 90p! Once I could have all four trotters off a porker for less than a pound from my butcher. Now he'll be jacking up his prices.
Oh well, they haven't got on to liver and lights, kidneys, brains and sweetbreads, tripe and spleen yet. But it's only a matter of time.
