Pork, fresh, variety meats and by-products, feet, raw

Raw pork feet, also known as pig's trotters, are typically simmered for a long time, often several hours, until the skin and connective tissue turn soft and gelatinous, a method used in dishes ranging from Southern American braised trotters to Chinese soy-braised feet and Filipino pata. They're rarely eaten straight from raw; instead they go into stocks, soups, and braises where the collagen breaks down and thickens the cooking liquid, or they're pickled after boiling. The meat itself is limited, so the appeal is texture, gelatin, and the flavor they lend to whatever they're cooked in, and the resulting cooking liquid often sets into a natural aspic once chilled.

Buy them fresh or frozen and keep raw pork feet refrigerated for only a day or two before cooking, or freeze them if not using soon, since raw fresh cuts like this don't hold as long as cured meats. Per 100 g, raw pork feet provide 23.2 g of protein, 46% of the Daily Value, one of the higher protein figures on this site, alongside 12.6 g of fat and 132 mg of sodium, with essentially no carbohydrate. A typical oz-sized portion for cooking weighs about 113 g. They work well as the long-simmered base of a stock or braise rather than a quick-cooking cut.