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To Collar Pig’s Head

A preserved pig's head prepared by scouring, salting, boiling, and seasoning with pepper, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Collar Pig’s Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scour the pig's head and ears thoroughly.

  2. Remove the hair, snout, eyes, and brains.

  3. Soak the head in water overnight.

Cure

  1. Drain the head and rub it with saltpetre and common salt.

  2. Cover the head with water and let it sit for two days.

Cook and press

  1. Wash the head well and boil until the bones come out.

  2. Remove the bones and chop the meat into 1-inch pieces.

  3. Season the meat with pepper and salt.

  4. Press the chopped meat into a pan lined with skin, then cover with another piece of skin.

Set and finish

  1. Let it cool to set.

  2. Boil 2 ounces of salt, 1 pint of vinegar, and a quart of the cooking liquid, then pour over the head.

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 + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's head
Supplies the meat, and the skin and bones release gelatin that helps the dish set as it cools.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat, helping preserve it and giving it a firmer, pinkish cured colour.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing and finishing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the rich meat and cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Curing with saltpetre and salt. Rubbing the head thoroughly with saltpetre and salt, then leaving it to sit in the brine for two days, lets the cure penetrate and preserve the meat. Too little curing leaves the meat poorly preserved, while uneven rubbing gives patchy colour and seasoning.

“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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