Skip to main content
Main

Tonbridge Brawn

A preserved pork head dish made by curing, pickling, boiling, and seasoning the head, ears, and feet.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tonbridge Brawn

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Split open the pig head and remove the brain and bones.

  2. Sprinkle the inside with coarse sea salt and let it drain overnight.

  3. Clean the ears and feet.

  4. Wipe off the brine.

  5. Place the ears and feet in a large pan.

Cure

  1. Rub the ears and feet with saltpetre mixed with sugar.

  2. After 12 hours, add coarse sea salt.

  3. Pour vinegar over the ears and feet.

  4. Turn them in the pickle every 24 hours for a week.

  5. Wash off the ears and feet.

Make the filling

  1. Boil the ears and feet for about 1.5 hours.

  2. Bone the feet while warm.

  3. Trim the gristle from the ears.

  4. Mix grated nutmeg, mace, cayenne, and cloves.

  5. Wash the head without soaking it.

  6. Flatten the head on a board.

  7. Cut some flesh from the thickest parts of the head.

  8. Season the flesh with the spice mixture.

  9. Intermix the seasoned head meat with the ears and feet.

Roll and cook

  1. Roll the mixture tightly.

  2. Bind it with broad tape and wrap it in a thin pudding cloth.

  3. Tie it securely at both ends.

  4. Place the head with bones and trimmings in a braising pan or suitable vessel.

  5. Add herbs, onions, celery, carrots, and peppercorns to the pan.

  6. Add enough cold water to cover the contents.

  7. Boil gently for 4 hours.

  8. Let it cool in the liquid.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Saltpetre
Helps cure the meat and keeps it pink while it is preserved.
Sugar
Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cure.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the meat during curing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the pickle, adding sharpness and aiding preservation.
Pig head
Forms the body of the brawn, providing meat and gelatine-rich connective tissue.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 4 hours. Gentle simmering keeps the meat tender and lets collagen from the bones and feet break down into gelatine, which sets the brawn. A hard boil can toughen the meat and cloud the liquid.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, pepper, clove, onion, celery):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, pepper, clove, onion, celery. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipes