Most northerners don't distinguish between front and back hooves when buying pig's trotters, while southerners, especially Cantonese, make a clear distinction, calling pig's front hooves pig's hands and pig's back hooves pig's feet. Pigs have more lean meat in their forepaws, which is more suitable for braising in soy sauce or making stewed pig's trotters, sauced pig's trotters and other dishes. Pig's hind hoof has many bones and thin skin, which is usually only suitable for making pig's hoof soup.
From the price point of view, the price of the front hoof is usually higher than that of the back hoof. There is a saying in China that "the front hoof is behind the arm", that is to say, you should eat the front hoof and the back hoof together when eating pig's trotters, because the front hoof has more meat and less bones than the back legs.
Therefore, my conclusion is that there is no difference between a good front hoof and a good back hoof. It depends on your personal taste and cooking style.
Knowing the difference between the front hoof and the back hoof of a pig, how can we choose what we want without buying it wrong?
Let's talk about how to distinguish the front hoof and the back hoof of a pig. There are two most common and simplest methods:
Method 1: Look at the section of pig's trotters. On the cross section of the pig's front hoof, obvious tendons can be seen, but there is no back hoof.
Method 2: From the bottom of the pig's foot up, there is a big, protruding and curved bone at the first joint of the hind foot. There are no prominent bones, and the joints are straight, especially the forefoot.
As we all know, if you just choose the wrong front and rear hoofs, the problem is not very big, but the taste will be different, or you can't cook in the expected way. But if you buy pig's trotters soaked in medicine, it is harmful to your health.
So how to avoid buying pig's trotters soaked in medicine?
1, look at the color and check the hoof.
The trotters after normal hair removal should be light yellow, so be vigilant when you see clean trotters. However, the pig's trotters soaked in the liquid medicine are not all white, and some are red. The best standard of judgment is your own hands. No matter how white the hands of the "soldiers" are, they have not entered the ranks of bleaching. Therefore, by referring to the skin color of hands, we can tell whether this "white" is white or not.
2, touch and stick.
The pig's trotters soaked in medicinal liquid feel sticky, and those that have not been soaked have no such sticky feeling. Gently press a button on the pig's trotters with your hand, and the soaked pig's trotters feel hard, while those that have not been soaked feel softer. Things like caustic soda and hydrogen peroxide have a strong ability to remove oil stains. Soak the trotters with this thing, there will be no oil stains on the trotters at all, and there will be no oil foam when you buy them back.
3. Come closer and smell it.
Soaked pig's trotters can smell faint liquid medicine, which sometimes masks the fishy smell of pork itself. You can't smell the medicine if you haven't soaked it.
Pig's trotters are rich in collagen, which can prevent skin from drying and wrinkling, enhance skin elasticity and toughness, and delay aging. It is an excellent beauty food for women. Pig's trotters also have the dietotherapy effects of strengthening waist, nourishing knees and promoting lactation, and can be used for waist and knee pain caused by kidney deficiency and postpartum hypogalactia.