Fried Chitterlings and Hog Maws

Description
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Ingredients

 * 2 pounds hog maws (pig stomach)
 * 2 pounds chitterlings (pig intestines)
 * 3 quarts water
 * 1 teaspoon salt
 * 1/2 teaspoon red pepper (flakes)
 * 1 medium peeled onion (white or yellow)

Directions
The hog maws are the thickest and will therefore take the longest to

cook. Rinse them thoroughly as you trim off the excess fat. Put them in

a 6 quart pot along with your 3 quarts water, onion, pepper, and salt.

Bring them to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hour 15

minutes.

While maws are cooking, rinse chitterlings thoroughly and trim the extra

fat off them. Like most organ meats, they have a lot of fat. Add

chitterlings to pot after maws have cooked for 1 hour 15 minutes. Cook

another 1 hour 30 minutes or until tender. Add a little extra water if

necessary.

Prepare a large cast iron skillet with 1/4 stick of butter. Remove maws

and chitterlings from pot and slice. I use to slice them right in the

preheated skillet although you can use a cutting board. Then stir with a

large metal spoon as you lightly brown them. You can pour out the water

from the pot, including the onion. The onion added a little flavor and

made them smell nicer while simmering.

A variation on this recipe is to slice the chitterlings and hog maws

into pieces as above, but them put them back in the pot with the stock.

Again, you can get rid of the onion. Cover the pot and simmer the cut up

mixture for another 50 minutes.

If you don't like onion or don't have onion, you can add four or five

bay leaves to the mixture instead.. Again, you throw the bay leaves away

before frying or cooking down the chitterlings.

By now the hog maws and chitterlings should be thoroughly done and

almost falling apart. You can serve them with your favorite side dishes

such as greens, macaroni and cheese, or rice. I actually prefer to eat

them by themselves, with several splashes of hot sauce. However, they

are fattening and it's tough not to eat too much. So you probably should

have a side dish.

Store the leftovers in the refrigerator. Like so many other great soul

food dishes, chitlins taste even better after the flavor has soaked in

for a few hours. The leftovers won't last long.