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    Home » Meat and Game

    Venison or Pork Trotter Cromesquis

    Published: Dec 18, 2020 Modified: Feb 21, 2023 Author: Alan Bergo

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    What's golden brown, crispy and delicious? Venison trotter cakes. Almost like a meat-filled tater tot, trotter cakes or cromesquis as they might be called are a classic French pork trotter recipe I've adapted to venison here.

    Fried venison trotter cakes with watercress, highbush cranberry aioli, and roasted pepper
    Deer foot tater tots. It's what's for dinner!

    Typically cromesquis are made with pork, which is how I was taught to make them by my friend. It was a recipe from his time as sous chef to Dan Barber at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Contemporary chefs like Ferran Adria and Grant Achatz have served versions of them too.

    Besides meat, you can also make cromesquis from just about anything. Traditionally they're made with a salpicon, which is just diced ingredients bound with a white sauce such as bechamel. Caul fat and salt pork are often used too.

    Venison feet or trotters for cooking
    Yep. You'll need deer feet to make this recipe.

    How it's made

    If you've made classic pork headcheese, you'll be familiar with how meat picked off the bone gets firm braising, picking and chilling. Trotter meat is basically a mass of gelatinous tissue, and, just like headcheese meat, once it's chilled it's solid as a rock.

    To prepare the meat, simmer a pork trotter or a couple venison trotters until the meat is falling off the bones. Cool it room temperature, remove all the meat, fat, and connective tissue and mince it as fine as possible.

    To make the cromesquis, chill the finely minced, cooked trotter meat. When it's firm, cut the meat into cubes and bread with flour, egg and breadcrumbs and deep fry.

    Warming loosens all the collagen that keeps everything all together, turning it into a decadent, crispy morsel that no one has to know came from a deer foot. 

    chopped, cooled venison trotter meat
    Chilled minced venison trotter can be cut into whatever shape you want.

    What to call them

    Trotter cake" isn't as romantic sounding as cromesquis, but you can call them whatever you want. Deer foot tater tots have a certain ring to them. 

    Fried venison trotter cakes or cromesquis with highbush cranberry aioli
    Fried venison trotter cakes or cromesquis with highbush cranberry aioli
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    5 from 1 vote

    Venison Trotter Cakes

    Crispy fried cakes made from smoked venison trotters. Makes about 12 1 oz portions.
    Prep Time30 minutes mins
    Trotter cooking time1 day d
    Total Time1 day d 30 minutes mins
    Course: Appetizer
    Cuisine: American, French
    Keyword: Offal, Trotters, Venison
    Servings: 6 Servings
    Calories: 84kcal
    Author: Alan Bergo
    Cost: 5

    Equipment

    • 3 medium mixing bowls

    Ingredients

    Trotter cakes

    • 6 oz finely minced cooked venison trotter, warmed (see recipe)
    • 2 oz mushroom duxelles
    • Fresh chopped Italian Parsley to taste
    • Fresh ground black pepper to taste
    • Lemon zest to taste
    • 1 small clove garlic grated or mashed to a paste
    • Kosher salt to taste

    Breading

    • All purpose flour as needed
    • 2 large eggs beaten
    • 1 cup breadcrumbs like panko pulsed in a food processor

    Instructions

    • Mix the trotter cake ingredients, then taste a tiny bit, and adjust the seasoning for lemon zest, salt and pepper until it tastes good to you.
    • Pack the mixture into a mold like a loaf pan lined with cling film and refrigerate until rock solid, at least a few hours. Unmold the trotter loaf and slice into cubes or fry-able morsels.
    • Toss the pieces of trotter loaf with flour, then dip in egg and toss in breadcrumbs. Chill the cakes to firm them, alternately they can be frozen, and then deep fried from frozen which will ensure the crust stays crisp, since after a few days in the fridge the breadcrumbs will get soft.
    • Deep fry the trotter cakes until golden (350F is good, although I don’t usually use a thermometer). Alternately, you can shallow fry them in a cast iron skillet. Allow the cakes to cool for a moment on a paper towel before putting on a plate or eating.
    • Serve with lemon wedges or a zingy dip like aioli. And be careful not to burn yourself, since trotter cakes can be deliciously molten.

    Notes

    I use venison trotters here, but you can make this much more easily using pork trotters. 

    Nutrition

    Serving: 2oz | Calories: 84kcal | Carbohydrates: 0.5g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 78mg | Sodium: 40mg | Potassium: 59mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 0.2g | Vitamin A: 108IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 1mg
    « Dried Venison Soup with Timpsila (Bapa Wohanpi)
    Steamed Fish with Wild Mushroom-Trotter Sauce »

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