The front hoof of the pig has more lean meat, which is more suitable for braising or making dishes such as marinated pig's trotters and pig's trotters in sauce. The back of the pig's hooves have more bones and thin skin, usually only suitable for making pig's feet soup. In addition to the difference in appearance, the taste and eating method are different. Pork knuckles mainly eat meat, so you want to eat meat to buy pork knuckles; pig feet mainly eat its thick skin and pig bones in the essence, want to supplement the collagen on the purchase of pig feet!
Pork knuckles are thicker, shorter, and more curved than pig feet. When you touch the inside of a pork knuckle with your hand, the skin of the meat will obviously feel looser, and the surface folds of the skin are more than those of a pig's foot. The hind feet are curved at the joints, and a glance at them will show that they are a little more curved. In cross-section, the bone in the middle of the hind hoof grows next to it. There is less meat in the hind leg, the bone is still big, and there are more tendons, so the price of the hind foot is relatively cheaper. Look at the direction of the toes, the front hoof overall has a clear bend, while the rear hoof toes will have the opposite direction of the bend.
When you go to the market to buy pig's feet, please choose the kind that is yellowish in color. Please be careful to buy pig's feet that are white with reddish color, although they look good, they are actually very heavy with chemicals. Pig's feet are the kind with a lot of meat, a pig's foot is nearly about 5 pounds. To differentiate between the two types of feet in terms of price, the front feet are usually more expensive than the rear feet. It is not recommended to buy frozen pig's feet, as the frozen ones have a dark reddish color and are not uniform. Also be careful not to buy sow's legs, there are spots and scabs, the skin is very thick and tough, the color of the meat is yellowish.
Pig's trotters are delicious, have some nutritional value, rich in collagen, in the brining process can be converted into gelatin, which can combine a lot of water, so as to effectively improve the physiological function of the organism and the skin tissue cells of the water storage function, to prevent the skin from premature wrinkles, delay skin aging. Traditional medicine believes that pig's trotters have the effect of strengthening the waist and tonifying the knees and breastfeeding, and can also replenish blood and bone, for frequent fatigue of the limbs, leg cramps, numbness, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hemorrhagic shock, ischemic encephalopathy patients have a certain degree of auxiliary therapeutic effect.