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Sausage Department

A stuffed pig's head filled with seasoned pork, shallots, pistachios, truffles, and tongues, then smoked and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 195 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Sausage Department

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Cut off 3 to 4 inches behind the ears of the pig's head and remove the bones, especially above the eyes.

  2. Remove cheek meat until the skin is about ½ inch thick.

  3. Sew the head up from the snout to the back opening.

Make the stuffing

  1. Chop the pork and mix with salt; let it stand for 24 hours.

  2. Add roasted shallots, white pepper, mace, pistachios, truffles, and diced tongues to the pork mixture.

  3. Fill the head with the stuffing and sew the cover on.

Smoke and cook

  1. Smoke for 2 hours until yellow brown, then tie tightly in a napkin.

  2. Cook in boiling water for 3 to 3½ hours, then allow to cool.

  3. Dip the ears in hot water and prop them upright with sticks while cooling.

Finish and decorate

  1. Cut out the eyes, fill with lard, and place a juniper berry in each.

  2. Stuff the snout with lemon and bay leaves, and decorate with jelly and lard.

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. Pistachio + walnuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together195 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Shallot + pistachiotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Shallot + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Pork + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork
Forms the bulk of the stuffing and sets into a firm, sliceable texture when cooked.
Salt
Seasons the pork and draws out moisture so the meat firms and holds together.
Truffles
Contribute a concentrated, earthy aroma to the stuffing.
Pistachios
Add crunch and nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft meat.
Shallots
Add mild sweetness and savoury depth once roasted in butter.
Lard
Adds richness and moisture, and fills the eyes for a smooth finish.

The step that matters

Cooking the stuffed head in boiling water. The head must stay at a steady simmer for the full 3 to 3½ hours. A rolling boil can split the skin and break up the stuffing, while cooking too briefly leaves the pork under-set and unsafe.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, shallot, butter, mace, pistachio, truffle, walnut):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, shallot, butter, mace, pistachio, truffle, walnut. 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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