"Make sure your pig's ears are free of hair" starts this recipe for fried pig's ear salad by chef April Bloomfield.
Wait, that's gross you said? Chances are, you love bacon but why not also love the rest of the pig? In this interview with NPR's Linda Wertheimer explains her love of pigs. All parts of them:
Bloomfield really does use the whole animal — and not just in the form of a suckling pig. One part of the book is called "The Not-So-Nasty Bits," which exemplifies her nose-to-tail philosophy, though it's not for readers who shy away from the idea of eating ears.
"I love anything crispy so, you know, it's very natural for me to have crispy pigs ears," she says. "It's basically like a big, crispy, sticky pork scratching, really." Bloomfield serves the fried ears on a salad of bitter greens with a lemon and caper dressing. "It sounds heavy, but when you eat it, it kind of refreshes your palate."
By the way, I have eaten pig's ears (in a soup, not fried in a salad) and I can tell you it's crunchily delicious.
And I love pig's feet too, but must take the skin off of it b/c it usually does have gross prickly hair on parts. BLEH.