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Tonbridge Brawn

A preserved pig's head dish from Tonbridge, made by pickling, seasoning, and slow cooking with herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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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 and cure

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

  2. Strew the inside with coarse sea salt.

  3. Let it drain overnight.

  4. Clean the ears and feet.

  5. Wipe off the brine.

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

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

  8. After 12 hours, add salt.

  9. Pour vinegar over them the next day.

  10. Turn in the pickle every 24 hours for a week.

  11. Wash off the ears and feet.

Cook the ears and feet

  1. Boil them for about 1.5 hours.

  2. Bone the feet while warm.

  3. Trim the gristle from the ears.

Shape and cook the brawn

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

  2. Wash and wipe the head.

  3. Flatten it on a board.

  4. Cut some flesh from the thickest parts.

  5. Season the flesh with spices.

  6. Intermix the head meat with the ears and feet.

  7. Roll the mixture tightly.

  8. Bind with tape.

  9. Wrap in a thin pudding cloth.

  10. Tie securely at both ends.

  11. Place in a braising pan or suitable vessel with bones, herbs, onions, celery, carrots, and peppercorns.

  12. Cover with cold water.

  13. Boil gently for 4 hours.

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

Pig's head
Supplies the meat and connective tissue that binds the brawn as it cooks and cools.
Saltpetre
Preserves the meat during curing and helps give it a pink colour.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the cure and adds gentle sweetness to the meat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the pickle, helping to preserve the meat and sharpen its flavour.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice to the seasoned meat.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 4 hours. Vigorous boiling toughens the meat and breaks up the tender pieces. A gentle simmer cooks the connective tissue slowly, keeping the brawn tender and well set.

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.

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