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Hog's-head Cheese

A preserved meat spread made from boiled pig's head, seasoned with spices, and set into a loaf.

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 ↓

Hog's-head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

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

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

Make the mixture

  1. Remove the head, take out all the bones, and mash the meat with a wooden spoon.

  2. Return the mashed meat to the boiling water.

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

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

Set and serve

  1. Pour it into pans or forms and smooth the top with the back of a spoon.

  2. 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 and natural gelatin from bones and connective tissue that set the dish as it cools.
Rubbed sage
Adds a savoury, aromatic flavour that defines the head cheese.
Sweet marjoram
Adds a mild, floral herbal aroma that complements the meat.

The step that matters

Boil until nearly dry. Reducing the cooking liquid concentrates the flavour and lets the gelatin from the bones set the mixture firmly when it cools. If it stays too wet, the head cheese will not hold its shape when sliced.

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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