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Hogs-head Cheese

A preserved cheese made from boiled hog's head and pig's feet, seasoned with salt, onion juice, Worcestershire sauce, peppers, allspice, paprika, and garlic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Hogs-head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Parboil the hog's head and pig's feet until the bones separate from the meat.

  2. Chop the meat finely and return it to the cooking liquid.

Season and set

  1. Add salt, onion juice, Worcestershire sauce, chopped peppers, allspice, paprika, and garlic.

  2. Mix well and add 3 cups of cooking liquid to thin the mixture.

  3. Pour into a mold and set in a cool place to jelly.

  4. Remove the garlic before serving.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Hog's head
Provides the bulk of the meat and the bones and connective tissue that release gelatin as it cooks.
Pig's feet
Adds collagen-rich skin and bone that help the cooled liquid set into a firm jelly.
Cooking liquid
Carries the flavor and gelatin that make the mixture thin enough to pour and then set.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds acidity and savory depth that balance the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Pour into a mold and set in a cool place to jelly. The set depends on enough gelatin from the bones and feet and on cooling the mixture fully. Too much thinning liquid or too little chilling leaves the head cheese soft and unable to hold its shape when sliced.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, pepper, allspice, clove, garlic):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, pepper, allspice, clove, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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