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Head Cheese

A preserved meat mixture made from boiled pig parts, salted hearts, cheek meat, and spices, stuffed into hog stomachs and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the boiled pigskin or calf feet into moderate-sized dice or thin strips.

  2. Mix in the desired proportions of salted hearts, cheek meat, ham trimmings, pickled meat trimmings, pigs heads, snouts, or ears.

  3. Add a small quantity of the strong broth from cooking the materials.

  4. For every 100 pounds of stock, mix 33 pounds of the first mixture with 67 pounds of the second mixture.

Season and rest

  1. Spice with 7 ounces of white pepper, 7 ounces of finely ground coriander seed, and 10 to 15 chopped onions.

  2. Salt the mixture as required and allow to rest for 1 to 1.5 hours.

Stuff and finish

  1. Stuff into prepared hog stomachs and boil.

  2. Remove from kettle and wash free from adhering fat.

  3. Press lightly under boards until cold.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Coriander + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Meat + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Salted hearts
Provide dense meat that binds into a firm, sliceable set once cooled.
Cheek meat
Adds rich meaty flavour and body to the mixture.
Pigskin or calf feet
Naturally rich in gelatin, which helps the chilled mixture set firmly.
Stock
Supplies moisture and gelatin so the mixture holds together when cold.

The step that matters

Pressing until cold. Pressing lightly while the mixture cools helps it set into a compact, even block. Pressing too early, while still hot, can squeeze out liquid and fat, leaving a dry or uneven texture.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, ham, coriander, onion, beef, pork):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, ham, coriander, onion, beef, pork. 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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