October 14 |
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St. Menehould |
St. Menehould (Manachildes) was a sixth century saint who, with her six
sisters,*
is venerated as virgin-saints
in France's Champagne region The number seven has medieval mystical
significance in families as is evidenced
by
the
numerous fairy tales about various groups of seven sisters, seven
princesses, seven dwarfs, etc. Because of the medieval popularity of the
legend of the seven virgin-sisters, there is a theory that many of
.
these fairy tales were based on
the life of St. Menehould and her six sisters. Sainte-Menehould later became famous for its distinctive local custom of cooking fish with less popular cuts of meat, such as pigs' feet and ox tails, by slow boiling them, coating then in a bread mixture, and crisping then in an oven. Whenever the term Sainte-Menehould is used in French culinary terminology, it refers to this distinctive method of preparation; ie, Pied de Porc Sainte-Menehould (breaded pigs' feet), Queue de bouf grillee Sainte-Menehould (breaded ox tails), Poulet la Sainte-Menehould (breaded capon), etc.
*
The sisters' names were
Lintrudiss, Amee, Pusinna, Francuma, Holdis, and Libergis, none of which, fortunately, appear in the popular publication
featured at most
Pied de Pork
Sainte-Menehould |
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Ingredients |
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4
large pigs' feet with knuckles |
1-1/2 cup breadcrumbs |
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Instructions |
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* Use a 2" wide strip
of washed cheesecloth. This step is not necessary, but it prevents the pigs'
feet
from curling. Who wants curly pigs' feet?
**
There is a wonderful anecdote in Millicent Dillen's exceptional biography of
Jane Bowles' Little Original
Sin, "There was meat-rationing on at the time. We used to
go to the meat market in Montpelier and one
day we saw that pigs' feet weren't rationed. Jane and
Helvetia asked me if I know how to cook than.
I'd eaten than in Paris and I said, 'Well, I think I
do.' So we bought than and we rolled than in breadcrumbs
and dipped than in egg and put than in the oven. I
didn't know that they had to be boiled for hours. When
they cane out, I looked at than and said, 'We can't eat
these.' Jane said, 'Yes we can.' No one else would
eat them, but she ate three of them. In the middle of
the night she got acute indigestion and Helvetia took
her to the hospital in town."
© 2009 by Gordon Nary |