Chitterlings
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Chitterlings (often pronounced /ˈtʃɪtlɪnz/ and sometimes spelled chitlins or chittlins in vernacular) are the viscera intestines of a pig that have been prepared as food. In various countries across the world, such food is prepared and eaten either as part of a daily diet, or at special events, holidays or religious festivities.
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[edit] Etymology and spread
'Chitterling' is a Middle English word for the small intestines of a pig, especially as they are fried, roasted or stewed for food.[1] Middle English was the language spoken in England between 1066 and about 1470, and so the food dish has at least a medieval origin in Europe.
As pigs are a common source of meat throughout the world, the dish known as chitterlings can be found in most pork-eating cultures. Chitterlings are popular in most parts of Europe, where pig intestines are also used as casing for sausages. In England, chitterlings remain especially popular in Yorkshire. Thomas Hardy wrote of chitterlings in his novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles, when the father of a poor family John Durbeyfield talks of what he would like to eat:
"Tell 'em at home that I should like for supper, - well, lamb's fry [liver] if they can get it; and if they can't, black-pot; and if they can't get that, well, chitterlings will do."
They are eaten as a dish in East Asian cuisines.
In the United States of America, chitterlings are an African-American culinary tradition and a Southern culinary tradition sometimes called "soul food" cooking.
Blacks in the Caribbean and indigenous peoples in Mexico also make use of pork in traditional dishes such as Mondongo and Menudo.
[edit] Preparation
Chitterlings are carefully cleaned and rinsed several times before they are boiled or stewed for several hours. A common practice is to place a halved onion in the pot to mitigate what many regard as a pungent, unpleasant odor that can be particularly strong when the chitterlings begin to cook. Chitterlings sometimes are battered and fried after the stewing process and commonly are served with cider vinegar and hot sauce as condiments, accompanied with coleslaw, or greens, and cornbread.
[edit] History in the United States
In colonial times, hogs were slaughtered in December. During slavery, in order to maximize profits, slave owners commonly fed their slaves in the cheapest manner possible. At hog butchering time, the preferred cuts of meat were reserved for the master's use, with the remains, such as fatback, snouts, ears, neck bones, feet, and intestines given to the slaves for their consumption.[2] Wealthier individuals considered pig innards (offal) as inedible and sometimes had them buried as garbage, but enterprising slaves would unearth them under cover of darkness and salvage them for the cook pot.[3]
April 22, 2003 The Smithsonian Institution's Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture accepted the papers of the Chitlin Market, a local business, as part of its emerging collection of materials about African American celebrations, foods and foodways.[4]
[edit] Food safety caution
Care must be taken when preparing chitterlings, due to the possibility of disease being spread when they have not been cleaned or cooked properly. These diseases/bacteria include E. coli and Yersinia enterocolitica, as well as Salmonella. Chitterlings must be soaked and rinsed thoroughly in several different cycles of cool water, and repeatedly picked clean by hand, removing extra fat, undigested food, and specks of fecal matter because the part of the pig the 'chitlins' come from includes intestinal polyps and the last few inches before the pig's anus. The chitterlings are then boiled and simmered until tender.
[edit] See also
- Chitlin' circuit
- Chitterling is a song by Adge Cutler and The Wurzels
- "Chitlins con Carne" is an instrumental jazz blues tune by guitarist Kenny Burrell from the album Midnight Blue (1963) and was also covered by Stevie Ray Vaughan on The Sky Is Crying (1991).
- Gargantua and Pantagruel written in 1532 by the Renaissance author Rabelais describes an adventure of Pantagruel, involving a tribe of Chitterlings in book 4, chapter 35.
- Kishka (food)
[edit] References
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary entry
- ^ "Fried Chitterlings (Chitlins) and Hog Maws". The Chitterling Site. http://chitterlings.com/chitterling.html. Retrieved on 2007-06-21.
- ^ Trescott, Jacqueline (April 25, 2003). "A place of honor for slaves' survival food". Los Angeles Times. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/328370031.html?dids=328370031:328370031&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Apr+25%2C+2003&author=Jacqueline+Trescott&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=E.28&desc=ART. Retrieved on 2007-06-21.
- ^ Trescott.
[edit] External links
- History of Chitterlings by Linda Stradley
- Caution in Preparing Chitterlings from the State of Georgia Division of Public Health
- Loved and reviled, chitterlings are the ultimate in soul food by LaMont Jones for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- [1] Shauna Anderson's Chitlin Market inducted into Smithsonian's Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History April 22, 2003
