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Of the Boars Head

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 780 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Of the Boars Head

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Singe the boar's head over a charcoal fire, moving it constantly.

  2. Wipe the head with a cloth and scrape it with a knife without scratching the skin.

  3. Open the head with a knife from one end to the other and carefully bone it, leaving no flesh on the bones.

  4. Bone the two necks of the boar and cut them into long fillets, 2 inches square.

  5. In a salting tub, mix the salt, brown sugar, bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves, mace, minced onions, thyme, winter savory, and sliced carrots.

  6. Place the head in the mixture and leave it for 8 to 10 days, rubbing it every other day until well salted.

  7. After salting, dry the head on a cloth, skin side down.

  8. Cover the interior of the head with 10 pounds of forcemeat, 1 inch thick at the thinnest parts.

  9. Roll the neck fillets in pieces of the rind and place a layer lengthwise in 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. Thyme + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Clove + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together690 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Winter savory + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together699 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, onion, thyme, winter savory, carrot, wild boar):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, onion, thyme, winter savory, carrot, wild boar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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