Although I'm sure the gentleman of Bath are terribly flattered, their town is wonderful and the Christmas market for certain the best in the South, I'm not talking about Spa-going, tweed wearing man folks.
Bath Chaps are an ancient concept, they were hugely popular back in the days of brining Pigs heads and using aspic but have fallen out favour. They are Pigs Cheeks. The rather massive, sometimes hairy, jowly, chops of the beast and they are delicious.
I can see why they may have fallen out of favour. They are fatty, quite reminiscent of Pork Belly but actually with more meat once the fat has rendered down through cooking, and the Chaps I bought the other day did have residual Pig beard on them so some may squirm at this overtly, piggy cut of meat.
I am lucky enough to live near the farm shop at Windsor where the butchery is first class and they will literally sell you any part of the animal because everything from breeding to rearing to butchery happens on site. The Bath Chaps were neatly parcelled up in one of the chillers and looked very tasty and a bargain at £2.45. I couldn't resist.
I am always on the look out for cheap and tasty ways of using meat so I had to have some even though I had no clue how to cook them. I vaguely remembered going to The Taste Of London and having slow cooked pig cheeks with creamy mash and thinking it was the greatest thing I'd ever tasted, so seeing that packet of Chaps I took on the challenge and went home to Google furiously.
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| One Chap. There is quite a bit of meat to be had on these but it requires slow cooking to melt the flavoursome fat. They might appear big when you start preparing them but they will shrink during cooking. |
All sorts of recipes came up to my delight but so many of them seemed to turn this simple, frugal dish into something unnecessarily expensive. I was sure that traditional Bath housewives didn't slow cook their Chaps with saffron and langoustines so I asked myself my important culinary mantra WWEDD?
What Would Elizabeth David Do? No fussy haute cuisine nonsense, so I checked her Pork Belly Recipe and adapted it to my cheeks........
Simple Slow Cooked Bath Chaps
Serves Two
Two Bath Chaps
String
Sea Salt
Cloves
Lay your Chaps, skin side down and gently cut down the fat in the middle of the Cheek to allow it to open out. This helps when rolling the Cheek and stringing.
Turn the Cheek over to see the skin side. If you are lucky, your butcher will score it for you, if not, score the skin down to the fat diagonally, about 1cm between each cut.
Turn the Cheek back over, scored skin side down and roll the cheek as best you can. Secure with the string, one tie at each end and one in the middle. It doesn't have to be perfect but try it a few times to get the best tight roll you can.
Lay the Chaps on a wire tray in a roasting dish so they won't end up swimming in their own fat and sprinkle with sea salt. Try to get the salt between the scoring on the skin as it will help with some good crackling.
Finally, stud the Chaps with 2 or 3 cloves and pop them in the oven.
Give them 15 minutes at the highest heat your oven will go, around 220c for most household ovens, then turn the oven down to 100c and let the Chaps cook slowly for around 3 hours. Turn off the oven but don't open the door, so you can retain the heat.
The fat will render down and the Chaps will shrink but the meat will be deliciously tender and the crackling, superb. Leave the Chaps to rest in the oven in the retained heat for 20-30 minutes before serving.
Cut into thick rounds, about 3 per Chap depending on their size and remember to remove the string.
I served this with creamy, spring onion mash, buttered carrots, parsnips roasted in the Chaps fat and fennel puree as a birthday meal for two. It went down very well with a bottle of Cotes-du-Rhone.
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