Head Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the head
Cut the hog's head into 4 pieces.
Remove the brain, ears, skin, snout, and eyes.
Cut off the fattest parts for lard.
Soak the lean and bony parts in cold water overnight.
Cook and strain
Boil the cleaned head in enough water to cover it until the meat separates from the bone. Remove from heat.
Pick out all the bones.
Drain off the liquid. Save some of the liquid for later use.
Chop the meat finely.
Return the chopped meat to the kettle. Pour enough of the saved liquid to cover the meat.
Boil slowly for 15 to 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
Set and serve
Transfer to a shallow pan. Cover with cheesecloth.
Place a weight on top to solidify.
Once cold, slice thinly.
Serve without further cooking.
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
What each ingredient does
- Hog's head
- Provides the meat, skin and gelatin-rich bones that give the head cheese its body.
- Water
- Cooks the head until the meat separates and forms the saved liquid that moistens the chopped meat.
The step that matters
Boil the cleaned head until the meat separates from the bone. Boiling slowly draws gelatin from the bones and connective tissue into the liquid. Cooling this liquid with the meat is what lets the mixture set firm when pressed.
“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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