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Hogs-head Cheese

A preserved meat product made by boiling a pig's head, mashing the meat, seasoning, and setting it in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 507 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Hogs-head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the pig's head thoroughly and wash it well.

  2. Boil the head in very little water with some coarse sea salt until the bones fall from the flesh.

  3. Remove the head, pick out all the bones, and mash the meat with a wooden spoon.

Season and set

  1. Return the mashed meat to the boiling water.

  2. Add red pepper, black pepper, rubbed sage, and sweet marjoram to taste.

  3. Boil the mixture until it thickens and is nearly dry.

  4. Pour the mixture into pans or forms and smooth the top with the back of a spoon.

  5. Let it cool completely before slicing and serving.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

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

  2. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 meat, skin and connective tissue that become the firm, sliceable body of the dish.
Sweet marjoram
Adds a mild, aromatic herbal flavour that balances the richness of the meat.
Rubbed sage
Contributes a savoury, aromatic herbal flavour characteristic of head cheese.
Red pepper
Adds warmth and heat that lifts the flavour of the rich meat.

The step that matters

Boil until nearly dry. Reducing the mixture concentrates the cooking liquid and its natural gelatin so it thickens and sets firm when cooled. Stopping too early leaves it loose and watery, while over-reducing can make it dry and tough.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sage, marjoram, mace):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sage, marjoram, mace. 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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