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A Collar of Brawn

A dish made by boiling pig's head, feet, and ears with salt, pepper, and bay leaf, then forming a collar of brawn.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,478 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

A Collar of Brawn

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, scrape, and clean the pig's head, feet, and ears thoroughly.

  2. Soak them in a mixture of salt and water with saltpetre for three hours.

Cook

  1. Boil the ox-heels with the head, feet, and ears until the bones can be easily removed.

Shape and press

  1. Place the head in a mold and fill it with the feet and small pieces.

  2. Press it together while hot and weigh it down to cool.

Season and set

  1. Boil for half an hour in enough liquid to cover the brawn, adding salt, black and white pepper, and a bay leaf.

  2. Once cooled, pour the liquid over the brawn.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + white peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pig's head
Rich in collagen, which turns to gelatin and helps the meat hold together when cold.
Pig's feet
Provide gelatin from their bones and skin, helping the brawn set firm when cooled.
Pig's ears
Add gelatin and a firm, chewy texture to the set meat.
Ox-heels
Release gelatin during long boiling, strengthening the liquid so it sets around the meat.
Saltpetre
Preserves the meat and helps keep a pink color during the curing soak.

The step that matters

Press the mold while hot and weigh it down to cool. Gelatin released from the bones and skin sets as the mixture cools. Pressing while hot packs the pieces together so they bond into one firm block instead of loose chunks.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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