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Head Cheese

Head cheese is a cold cut made from boiled pig head parts and ham scraps, seasoned and set in a muslin bag.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Boil the pig's forehead, ears, feet, and ham scraps until the meat almost falls off the bones.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones and place it in a large bowl.

Season and shape

  1. Season the meat with pepper, coarse sea salt, sage, and summer savory, then chop it coarsely.

  2. Return the meat to the kettle with enough cooking liquid to prevent burning and warm it through.

  3. Mix the meat well, then pour it into a strong muslin bag.

  4. Press the bag between two flat surfaces with a heavy weight on top.

Serve

  1. Once cold and solid, slice the head cheese.

  2. Serve cold or warmed in vinegar.

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. Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

  5. Ham + summer savorytop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Forehead, ears, and feet of a fresh pig
Collagen from the skin and connective tissue gelatinizes as it cooks, helping the mass set firm when cold.
Scraps trimmed from the hams of a fresh pig
Adds meat and fat, giving the set mixture its savory richness and moisture.
Sage
Adds aromatic herbal flavor that carries through the cooked meat.
Summer savory
Adds a peppery, thyme-like aroma that complements the pork.

The step that matters

Return the meat to the kettle with enough cooking liquid. Without enough liquid the meat can scorch on the bottom of the kettle as it warms. The cooking liquid keeps it moist and, as it cools, its dissolved gelatin helps the chopped meat bind into a sliceable set.

Swap the summer savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, sage):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, sage. 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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