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Tonbbidoe Brawn

A preserved pork head prepared with spices, herbs, and vinegar, then boiled and served whole or sliced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Tonbbidoe Brawn

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Split open the head of the porker, remove the brain and bones.

  2. Sprinkle the inside with coarse sea salt.

  3. Let it drain overnight.

  4. Clean the ears and feet.

  5. Wipe off the brine.

  6. Place them in a large pan.

  7. Rub the ears and feet with saltpetre mixed with sugar.

  8. After 12 hours, add coarse sea salt.

  9. Pour vinegar over them and turn them in the pickle every 24 hours for a week.

  10. Wash off the brine.

Cook the ears and feet

  1. Boil the ears and feet for about 1.5 hours.

  2. Bone the feet while warm.

  3. Trim the gristle from the ears.

Prepare and cook the head

  1. Wash the head without soaking.

  2. Wipe it.

  3. Flatten it on a board.

  4. Cut some flesh from the thickest parts.

  5. Season all the meat with grated nutmeg, mace, cayenne, and cloves.

  6. Roll the meat tightly.

  7. Bind it with broad tape.

  8. Wrap it in a thin pudding cloth and tie securely at both ends.

  9. Place the head with bones and trimmings, herbs, onions, celery, carrots, and peppercorns in a braising pan or suitable vessel.

  10. Cover with cold water.

  11. Boil gently for 4 hours.

  12. Let it cool in the cooking liquid.

Press and serve

  1. Remove the cloth.

  2. Place the brawn between two dishes with a heavy weight on top.

  3. Remove the tape.

  4. Serve the head whole or sliced.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork head
Forms the bulk of the brawn, and its collagen-rich meat and gristle set into a firm jelly as it cooks.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat, helping it keep its pink colour and giving it a cured flavour.
Sugar
Balances the salt in the cure and softens the savoury, salty flavour of the meat.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the curing stage.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the pickle, sharpening the flavour of the meat.
Onions
Add savoury aroma and sweetness to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Boiling the head gently for 4 hours. A rolling boil can break up the meat and cloud the liquid, while gentle simmering lets collagen in the bones and gristle slowly convert to gelatin so the brawn sets firmly when cooled.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, pepper, clove, onion, celery. 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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