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Head Cheese

Head cheese is a cold meat terrine made from boiled pig head and ears, seasoned, pressed, and sometimes preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Thoroughly clean the hog's or pig's head, removing the eyes and brain.

  2. Clean the ears and pour scalding water over the head and ears, then scrape them well.

  3. Place the head and ears in a kettle and cover with water.

  4. Bring to a boil over medium heat, skimming off any scum that rises.

  5. Boil until the flesh separates from the bones.

Press the meat

  1. Remove the head from the water and place it in a large bowl or tray.

  2. Remove all bones and chop the meat finely.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and optional sage.

  4. Spread a cloth over a colander and place the meat inside.

  5. Fold the cloth over it.

  6. Place a weight on top to press the meat evenly. Use a heavy weight for lean meat and a lighter one for fatty meat.

  7. Once cold, remove the weight and take the meat out of the colander.

Store and render

  1. Place it in a crock.

  2. If desired, add 1 pint of vinegar to the crock for preservation.

  3. Clarify the fat from the cloth, colander, and pot liquor for frying.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Sage + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together618 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hog's or pig's head
Provides the meat, skin and connective tissue that set into the jelly-like loaf.
Water
Cooks the head until the flesh softens and releases gelatin into the liquid.
Salt
Seasons the meat and helps draw out moisture and flavor during pressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps preserve the meat and sharpens its flavor.

The step that matters

Pressing the meat under the right weight. Pressing while the meat is still warm lets it bind as it cools. Too heavy a weight on lean meat squeezes out too much moisture, while too light a weight on fatty meat leaves it loose and crumbly.

Swap the sage

The recipe marks sage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar. 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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