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Bohemian Brawn Smoked

A smoked pork brawn made from boiled head, ears, feet, and pork belly, seasoned with pepper, mace, salt, and shallots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Bohemian Brawn Smoked

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the head, ears, and feet of the pig in strong saltwater until tender.

  2. Remove all bones and cut the meat into small pieces.

  3. Mix the meat with white pepper, mace, coarse sea salt, and shredded shallots.

Cure and roll the belly

  1. Cut the pork belly into a square or oblong shape and cure it in common salt for 12 hours.

  2. Wipe the belly dry and spread the minced meat mixture on it.

  3. Roll the belly tightly and bind it with tape, then sew a coarse cloth around it.

Simmer, cool and smoke

  1. Place it in a pan of cold water and simmer for at least 3 hours.

  2. Remove from water and let it cool, then take off the cloth.

  3. Wrap it in coarse paper and hang it to smoke for 14 days.

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

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Shallot + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,316 recipes

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

  3. Mace + porktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,565 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Mace + shallottop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. White pepper + shallottop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together335 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig head, ears, and feet
Gelatinous connective tissue that breaks down during boiling and helps the filling bind and set when cooled.
Pork belly
Fatty outer layer that wraps the filling, adding moisture and richness as it cooks.
White pepper
Adds a sharp, earthy heat that seasons the meat filling.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the filling.
Shallots
Add mild sweet-savoury aromatic flavour to the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Simmering the rolled belly. The roll must be held at a gentle simmer for the full time so the connective tissue softens and the belly cooks through without falling apart. A hard boil can break the roll and leave the filling loose.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white pepper, mace, pork):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white pepper, mace, 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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