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Pig's Head and Feet, in Brawn

A preserved pig head and feet cooked in a seasoned brawn with vinegar, spices, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pig's Head and Feet, in Brawn

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the pig's head and feet thoroughly.

  2. Split open the head, cut off the ears and snout, remove the brains and eyes, and scrape the feet.

  3. Singe the coverings of the toes if necessary until loose.

  4. Sprinkle salt over the head, feet, and ears, and let drain for 24 hours.

Cure

  1. Wipe dry, place in a deep pan, and rub with saltpetre and sugar mixture.

  2. Add common salt after a few hours.

  3. Pour vinegar over the meat daily for a week, turning and basting it.

Cook and shape

  1. Wash in one or two waters, then place in a stewpan with enough lukewarm water to cover.

  2. Simmer until tender, allowing bones to be easily removed.

  3. Cut gristle from the thick part of the ears.

  4. Season the meat with mace, nutmeg, cloves, and cayenne pepper.

  5. Layer one cheek skin down on a board, add feet and ears, then top with the other cheek.

  6. Roll tightly and bind securely with broad tape.

  7. Cover with a cloth and sew up both ends.

  8. Place in a stewpan with bones and trimmings and two onions.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's feet
Their collagen breaks down into gelatin, which helps the brawn set firm when cooled.
Pig's head
Provides the main meat and connective tissue that give the brawn its body and texture.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat, preserving it and giving it a pink color and cured flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the cure and adds a mild sweetness to the meat.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing and preserves it.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the meat during the week of steeping.

The step that matters

Simmer until tender, not boiled hard. Vigorous boiling toughens meat and breaks it apart, while gentle simmering lets collagen soften slowly into gelatin that sets the brawn cleanly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, meat, mace, nutmeg, clove, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, meat, mace, nutmeg, clove, pepper. 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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