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Head Cheese

Head cheese is a cold meat jelly made from boiled hog head, seasoned, and pressed into a loaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Thoroughly clean the hog's head.

  2. Cut the head in two.

  3. Remove the eyes and brains.

  4. Cut off the nose and ears.

  5. Pour scalding water over the head and ears.

  6. Scrape the head and ears clean.

  7. Rinse everything in cold water.

Cook the meat

  1. Cover with fresh water in a pot.

  2. Boil gently.

  3. Skim off the scum until the meat separates from the bones.

  4. Transfer the meat to a large bowl.

  5. Remove all bones.

  6. Chop the meat finely.

  7. Season with salt, pepper, and optional herbs.

Press and set

  1. Line a colander with a cloth.

  2. Place the colander over a deep dish.

  3. Add the meat.

  4. Fold the cloth over the meat.

  5. Place a plate on top to press it down.

  6. Use a weight to adjust the firmness of the cheese as desired.

  7. Once cooled, scrape off any fat from the cloth.

Store and serve

  1. Store in a cool place.

  2. Serve sliced thin with mustard, vinegar, or ketchup.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Hog's head
Provides the meat, skin and gelatinous connective tissue that bind the cheese once cooled.
Salt
Seasons the meat and draws out flavour from the rich, mild pork.

The step that matters

Skim off the scum while boiling gently. Skimming removes impurities that would cloud the broth and taint flavour. Gentle boiling keeps the meat tender and prevents it from breaking apart, so it separates cleanly from the bones.

“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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