If you're going to eat hogmaw... which I'm the first to admit I am NOT lining up to do... I've long contended that there's a big debate over whether you actually eat the pig stomach or not.
I finally got my first response to my original post from July 2007 - last month!
New commenter Jamie said her grandmother used to make hogmaw when she was growing up in Stoney Creek Mills, near Reading. "The crispy side of the stomach was always fought over. We ate the whole thing in my family," she said.
I'll ask again: Is that the York County way? I don't know if I could ever manage to eat what I know is a stomach, but if that's the authentic eating method... who knows? Maybe I'll get brave.
Also, I finally found a decent hogmaw picture online, and by decent, I mean slightly scary-looking.
It's from a thread on the Sentinel newspaper's message boards on eating Pa. Dutch.
Joni,
Don't eat that thing, it looks like it comes from outer space! I don't want anything to happen to you.
Love, Weez
The object in the photo looks like one of Dr. Oz's specimens showing cancer or some other disease in an organ, or that woman's 150 lb. tumor removed from her insides. I cannot imagine eating anything that looks like that.
As a child, I can remember going to my uncle's hog farm in the winter to butcher. I had 2 jobs. 1st was to clean the "Sausage casing" and stuff it, 2nd was to scrape and clean the stomach. Growing up around this, it'n not hard to imagine that when mom made hogmaw we would fight over the skin. The most prized were the thick ends. Dad always won. Now that I cook my own food, I don't have to fight for my ends. Oh yeah, We have hogmaw for our New Years Day dinner.
I grew up in my Grandfather's butcher shop and my Grandmother made hog maw frequently. When I got married that was one dish I had to learn how to make. Our family, reluctantly, tasted it and now everyone loves it skin and all. If you like sausage and potatoes you would like it and you don't have to eat the skin, but that gives it the flavor.
My grandmother used to make two hog maws for every holiday because I would eat one myself. Now I only make it for myself and a couple of friends. I wouldn't eat the one in the picture either because it isn't cooked.
As a child growing up I can remember going to my uncle's hog farm for yearly butchering. I had 2 jobs. 1st was to clean the "sausage casing" and stuff it, 2nd was to scrape and clean the stomach. So it's not hard to imagine that when mom made hogmaw, we would fight over who got the most skin. Most treasured was,and still is, the thick ends. Dad always won. Now that I do my own cooking, there is no debate over who gets the ends. Oh yeah, we have hogmaw for our New Years Day dinner. Oh, one more thing, if you published a picture of a properly cooked hogmaw and not a raw one, it would look awhole lot better.