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To Make Mock Brawn

A preserved meat mixture of pig belly, head, ox feet, bound with white fillet and cured in saltwater.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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To Make Mock Brawn

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the meat

  1. Rub the belly part and pig's head with saltpetre.

  2. Let the rubbed meat sit for three days.

  3. Wash the meat clean.

  4. Split the pig's head.

  5. Boil the split head until tender.

  6. Remove the bones from the head.

  7. Cut the meat into pieces.

Roll and boil

  1. Combine the head pieces with the boiled ox feet in the belly part.

  2. Roll the mixture tightly in sheet tin, ensuring it fits a trencher at each end.

  3. Boil the tin for four to five hours.

  4. Set the tin upright after boiling.

Press and brine

  1. Press down the tin with a lead weight.

  2. Let the tin stand overnight.

  3. Remove the tin from the press.

  4. Bind the mixture with a white fillet.

  5. Submerge the bound mixture in cold saltwater.

  6. Change the brine every four days for preservation.

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

What each ingredient does

Saltpetre
Cures the meat, giving it a firm texture and pink colour during the rest period.
Pig's head
Provides gelatin and meaty body that binds the set mixture together when cooled.
Ox feet
Supply collagen that dissolves in boiling and sets into a jelly, binding the pieces.
Belly part
Adds fat and richness, keeping the pressed mixture moist and tender.

The step that matters

Boil the tin for four to five hours. Long, gentle simmering is needed to break down collagen in the head and feet into gelatin. Too little time leaves the mixture tough and unable to set firmly when pressed and cooled.

“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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