# Pickled Pigs Feet--Surely I can't be the only one who likes 'em? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 4, 2009, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255 "2009-03-04T07:34:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/21 "2009-03-05T08:32:39Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > [del]I’d sooner eat the butthole.[/del] Some people are into that. Anyway, I asked my grandmother today, and she said they are very good, and I actually have eaten them as a small child. I have no memory of this. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/22 "2009-03-05T13:00:54Z")
Whenever I’ve seen them it was usually at a convenience store and there were probably twenty or so in a great big jar. I’m going to assume they also come in a much smaller size, “fewer to.” You mention corn on the cob, is that how they’re eaten? No knife and fork to cut away the skin, you just dive right in? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/23 "2009-03-05T18:19:14Z")
In my mother’s home town of “Gay” Georgia, (yes, really) the general store/Post office/Antique shop had a huge jar of these on the counter. When I jokingly asked my great Uncle whether I should try one, he said: “No those are only there to scare Yankee theives.” The next time I visited was about five years later, and I could have sworn that was the same blood vein waving in the liquid. They just looked raw to me, are they cooked at all or just thrown into vinegar? That and Rocky Mountain Oysters are the only foods I’ve ever refused to try. Yech! I’ll take the boiled okra over that any day! ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/24 "2009-03-05T18:23:36Z")
[http://moremeat.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/pickled-pig-feet.jpg?w=432&h=324](http://moremeat.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/pickled-pig-feet.jpg?w=432&h=324) For the uninitiated . . . ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/25 "2009-03-05T18:32:06Z")
The name alone is off-putting … but the _sight_ was enough to give me dry heaves. :eek: They could taste like ambrosia of the gods as far as I know. The only way they are likely to pass my lips involve some wildly improbable scerarios: “tell us the plans, vile traitor, or we will make you eat … THIS!” ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/26 "2009-03-05T19:32:06Z")
Had them as a kid. My grandma made them and I remember them being pretty good but sort of a poor replacments for real ham. They were sort of grey/brown. The pigs feet in the stores that I have seen are always split, which makes them creepy looking, and they have some sort of dye that gives them that evil pink color. No thanks. Same story with pickled eggs and pickled pigs lips. Why the pink food coloring? ---
**Author:** ![Myrrajh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/87869e/32.png) [@Myrrajh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrrajh)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/27 "2009-03-05T19:42:56Z")
My dad had them as a kid, so we had them once in a while when I was a kid. Not as bad as they sound, that’s for sure. It’s probably been 25 years since I’ve had them, though. Won’t be eating them again, IBS tells me “no red meat!” Can’t say I’m too upset about missing out on pig’s feet, though. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/28 "2009-03-05T19:53:46Z")
When we were in our late teens, one of my best friends got to be a pretty bad alcoholic for a couple of years. Every day after work, he would walk over to the grocery store and get a couple bottles of Red Rose (this was $2 wine before 2 buck Chuck came into style) and a jar of pickled pigs feet. He’d go home - which was a ratty trailer he shared with an older co-worker of ours - and lie on his back on the couch, drinking the wine and eating the pigs feet. He’d always eat too much, so after he passed out he’d puke them up in his sleep, all over his chest. Wine and stomach acid and chewed pickled pigs feet, on a kid on a couch that looked like it should’ve been hauled off to the dump in the late '70s. This was routine. Pretty much turned me off to 'em, but thanks for asking. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/29 "2009-03-06T00:29:16Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > [http://moremeat.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/pickled-pig-feet.jpg?w=432&h=324](http://moremeat.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/pickled-pig-feet.jpg?w=432&h=324) > > For the uninitiated . . . And that’s the second time I let out an audible “oh my god!” while viewing this very thread! That must be a record for me… ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/30 "2009-03-06T01:43:01Z")
My mother and older brother ate them. I assume they picked up that up when we lived in the south. I and my older sister wouldn’t touch them. The only southern thing I ever ate after I joined the Army was hominy grits. But it was in the Army I was introduced to the southern custom of pickling bizarre things and leaving them in a big jar on the counter. The only thing like that I’d consider trying would be maybe a pickled egg, but I never got around to trying that either. ---
**Author:** ![3acresandatruck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e79b87/32.png) [@3acresandatruck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3acresandatruck)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/31 "2009-03-06T02:05:56Z")
It’s been a long, long time since I had one, but pickled pig’s feet were good. I liked pickled eggs, too. Pickled eggs aren’t always pink, but some people pickle eggs in leftover pickled beet juice - waste not, want not - and that yields pink pickled eggs. Pink or not, feet and eggs…we’d scarf’em down at this bar in south St. Louis. On the subject of feet, chicken feet are tasty, too. But one thing from pigs that I don’t like is head cheese. It was one of the cheap things Mom would feed us and I never did care for it. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/32 "2009-03-06T15:29:01Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > The only thing like that I’d consider trying would be maybe a pickled egg, but I never got around to trying that either. They had those on the counter at The Birdhouse in Girdwood, AK. Called 'em boneless chicken dinners. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/33 "2009-03-06T15:44:38Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > IWe also made most of this flight with the back door open… He was throwing those pigs feet and the good breakfast we’d cooked into a garbage bag for the next half-hour. You should have hooked a tether onto him and let him hurl outside. 😃 (Of course, helicopters can be a bit breezy, so maybe not. 😉 ) I’ve never tried pig’s feet, but I remember ‘Floyd On Food’ liked to use ‘pig’s trotters’ in some of his recipes. Not long ago I tried [gefilte fish](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=502319) for the first time. They look just as disgusting as pig’s feet, but they weren’t bad. I have to go to the store anyway to get some chicken, so I may as well look for a jar of feet too. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/34 "2009-03-06T17:04:22Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > You should have hooked a tether onto him and let him hurl outside. 😃 (Of course, helicopters can be a bit breezy, so maybe not. 😉 ) > > I’ve never tried pig’s feet, but I remember ‘Floyd On Food’ liked to use ‘pig’s trotters’ in some of his recipes. Not long ago I tried [gefilte fish](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=502319) for the first time. They look just as disgusting as pig’s feet, but they weren’t bad. I have to go to the store anyway to get some chicken, so I may as well look for a jar of feet too. Naw, gefilte fish aren’t nearly as gross to look at as pickled pig’s feet. They just look like grey meatballs. With pig’s feet, they definitely look like, well, chopped off body parts. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/35 "2009-03-06T17:07:56Z")
Is **all** of a pickled pig’s foot edible? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255/36 "2009-03-06T17:15:43Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Naw, gefilte fish aren’t nearly as gross to look at as pickled pig’s feet. They just look like grey meatballs. Hairy-looking grey meatballs. > [@Malthus](#): > > With pig’s feet, they definitely look like, well, chopped off body parts. :eek: I cook with ham hocks a couple of times a year, so I’m used to seeing cartilaginous joints. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickled-pigs-feet-surely-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-likes-em/488255.md?page=1)