Cow's trotters


Cow's trotters, are the feet of cattle. The cuts are used in various dishes around the world, especially in Asian, African, French, and the Caribbean cuisine. Latin American cuisine also uses cow's trotters for several traditional dishes.
Other than cattle, the trotters of other ungulates such as goat, sheep and pig might also consumed and used in certain dish of some cuisines' tradition.

Description

The cow's trotters does not contain any muscles or meat; other than bones and toe hoof, it mainly consists of skin, tendons and cartilage. In cuisine, the trotters' cuts are mainly valued for its unique texture—a gelatinous rather chewy soft texture of its tendons and skin, and also a rich broth produced from its bones. Nevertheless, to acquire a pleasant soft texture, a prolonged time of cooking, or pressure cooker might be employed in the process, this will extract the gelatins out of the trotters into the soup.
Traditionally, in Western cuisine, the trotters are not commonly consumed, and not included in common cut of beef, which only recognize shanks. Nevertheless, the cut is often included as part of beef shank.
In Indonesian cuisine, cow's trotters is considered as a delicacy. The gulai tunjang or gulai kaki sapi is a popular spicy cow's trotter curry in Padang cuisine. While soto kaki sapi is a type of traditional spicy Soto soup made of bits of tendons, cartilage and skin from cow's trotters. The soup is popular in Indonesia, especially in Betawi cuisine.

Dishes