Epicurean Encounters: Awful Offal

Last week was whole animal cookery. We had an 88 pound pig, small for most whole hogs, which we butchered into primal cuts and cooked with varying techniques.
We severed the pig head and made head cheese. We brined the pig ears and deep fried them. Were they delicious! The pig skin was also removed and dried in the oven for two days, after which they were deep fried into the crunchiest, most flavorful chicharrones I have ever tasted.
I cured half of a ham for 24 hours, then cooked it in pig fat for three hours 'til fork tender and shredded it for a rillette, which is a very French meat paste spread on baguettes. Talk about porky goodness. My teammates turned the other half of the ham into a pepper fennel sausage that we are drying for 3 weeks.
From the shoulder, we made a pork ragout and homemade pasta for our family meal one day. One jowl has been removed to make guanciale, or what we affectionately call face bacon. The ribs were smoked and covered with home-made barbecue sauce. And the belly we are saving for the culmination dinner.
What to do with the liver, heart, tail, and brains? We scrambled the brains with some farm fresh eggs from Carrie's Clucks in Windsor, CO. The brains tasted like eggs, soft and creamy. The liver was breaded and pan fried but proved inedible for most folks. Luckily someone salvaged it for their dog so it was not wasted. I've never had pig heart tartar until now. It was not terrible but I prefer the organ sautéed. The tail was cut up, breaded and fried. It was flavorful and very gelatinous.
All in all, the pig is one versatile and tasty animal from nose to tail.