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Head-cheese

Head cheese is a cold meat jelly made from pig head, ears, tongue, and seasonings, then chilled and sliced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Head-cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Clean the meat thoroughly, ensuring no impurities remain.

  2. Boil the meat and bones in salted water until very tender.

  3. Remove the head, drain in a colander, and carefully remove all bones.

Season and press

  1. Cut the ears finely and mix them with the head meat.

  2. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, sage, sweet marjoram, and powdered cloves.

  3. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed, then pack tightly in a bowl, layering with slices of boiled tongue.

  4. Press the mixture into a compact shape and cover with a plate weighted down.

  5. Refrigerate for 2-3 days before serving.

Serve

  1. Slice thinly and serve with vinegar and mustard, or fry after dipping in egg and cracker crumbs.

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

Head of a pig
Provides the meat and gelatinous connective tissue that binds the set loaf together.
Boiled tongue
Adds a firmer, sliced layer of meat that contrasts with the finely chopped head meat.
Ears
Contribute cartilage and skin whose gelatin helps the mixture hold together when chilled.

The step that matters

Pressing and chilling the mixture. Pressing while packing removes air pockets and brings the meat close together, and the gelatin from the bones and skin sets as it cools. Chilling for the full 2-3 days lets the mixture firm enough to slice cleanly.

Swap the clove

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

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

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