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To Hash Pig's Head

A hash made from boiled pig's head, feet, and haslet with spices, eggs, and walnut catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

To Hash Pig's Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the pig's head, feet, and haslet until tender.

  2. Remove the bones and cut the meat into small pieces.

Make the hash

  1. In the same pot, add black pepper, salt, sage, onions, red pepper, mace, and cloves.

  2. Cook until heated through, then thicken with a little flour.

  3. Stir in the chopped hard-boiled eggs and walnut catsup.

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. Sage + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Sage + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's head
Provides the main body of meat and gelatinous richness that gives the hash its body.
Pig's feet
Adds gelatin, which helps the hash set and gives it a silky, rich texture.
Pig's haslet
Contributes savory, rich meat flavour and extra fat to the hash.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften during cooking.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a creamy, rich texture to the mixture.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the hash holds together.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour. Flour must be added while the mixture is hot and stirred well, or it will clump and leave lumps. Cooking it briefly lets the starch swell and thicken the liquid smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sage, onion, clove, egg, walnut, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sage, onion, clove, egg, walnut, flour. 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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