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Pork Brawn

A preserved pork head and feet mixture seasoned, boiled, and pressed into a tin to set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Pork Brawn

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Clean and wash the pig's head and feet.

  2. Sprinkle the head and feet with 2 tablespoons of coarse sea salt and let drain overnight.

  3. Dry with a soft cloth.

  4. Rub the head and feet with a mixture of 6 ounces common salt, 6 ounces moist sugar, ½ ounce saltpetre, and ½ ounce black pepper.

  5. Rub the mixture into every part of the head, tongue, ears, and feet, turning them over and rubbing again daily for 10 days.

  6. Wash off the pickle.

Cook and prepare

  1. Cut off the ears.

  2. Boil the feet and ears for 1.5 hours.

  3. Add the head and tongue, cover with cold water, and boil until the meat separates from the bones.

  4. Remove from heat, drain, and cut the meat into small pieces.

  5. Remove all bones and skin the tongue.

  6. Season the minced meat with 1 teaspoon white pepper, ¾ teaspoon powdered mace, ¼ teaspoon powdered nutmeg, and ¼ teaspoon cayenne, and mix well.

Set and serve

  1. Press the mixture into a brawn tin while warm and place a heavy weight on the lid.

  2. Store in a cool place overnight.

  3. Dip the mold in boiling water.

  4. Turn out the brawn.

  5. Serve with vinegar and mustard.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Nutmeg + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's head with tongue
Provides the meat and gelatinous connective tissue that binds the brawn as it sets.
Pig's feet
Their collagen breaks down during boiling and helps the brawn set firmly when cooled.
Common salt
Cures the meat and seasons it, drawing out moisture and firming the flesh.
Moist sugar
Balances the salt in the cure and adds mild sweetness.
Saltpetre
Helps the meat keep its pink colour during curing.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, warm spice to the cure.

The step that matters

Boiling the head and tongue until the meat separates from the bones. Boiling too briefly leaves meat clinging to bone and gelatin underdeveloped, so the brawn will not set; boiling too hard can make the meat stringy and cloudy. Gentle, thorough simmering releases collagen that gels as the brawn cools.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper, mace, nutmeg, vinegar, mustard):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, mace, nutmeg, vinegar, mustard. 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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