STUFFED CHINE

Serves: 15
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 3 hours

METHOD

1. Ask your butcher to cure the chine for you. You will probably only need a half chine; it'll probably weigh 4 - 5 kilos anyway and be perfectly sufficient for a large party.
2. I haven't put any weights in the recipe, I think just rely on your taste, but major on the parsley and onion. Chop all the herbs and mix with the garlic cloves which you should squeeze out of their husks.
3. Skin your chine, unless the butcher's done it for you. Slash it with deep cuts almost parallel with the flat top surface of the meat and going about a third of the way down. Turn it over and repeat.
4. Fill the slashes with your mixture. I think the trick is here, to use the herb mix as a seasoning and not really a stuffing.
5. Then spread any remaining mix over all the surfaces of the meat, and lay it on a large pice of muslin. Wrap the muslin all round the meat, and tie it using butcher's string from the same friendly butcher who cuired it for you in the first place. Tie it crossways about four or five times and lengthways once.
6. Put in a large pan with a few pigs trotters and your stock herbs and vegetables. Include the herb stalks from the stuffing.
7. Count 35 minutes per kilo from the time you turn on the heat. Bring it to the boil and gently simmer for the rest of the allotted time. Turn off the heat and let it cool in the liquor.
8. The next day slice into thin slices ensuring that a little of the fragrant jelly adheres to each slice. If the jelly needs to be a little more set, then reduce it a bit, but watch the salt. Its nicest as a loose herby jelly, not some rubbery old boot.

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