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Head Cheese

Head cheese is a cold meat jelly made from pig head parts, ham scraps, and seasonings, served cold or warmed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Cook and prepare the meat

  1. Boil the pig's forehead, ears, feet, and ham scraps until the meat almost falls off the bones.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones and place it in a large bowl.

  3. Season the meat with pepper, coarse sea salt, sage, and summer savory, then chop it coarsely.

Press and serve

  1. Return the meat to the kettle with enough boiling liquid to prevent burning and warm it through.

  2. Pour the mixture into a strong muslin bag and press it between two flat surfaces with a heavy weight on top.

  3. Slice and serve.

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. Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Ham + summer savorytop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig forehead, ears, and feet
Their collagen-rich skin and connective tissue break down into gelatin that sets the mixture into a firm jelly.
Ham scraps
Add meat and connective tissue that contribute body, flavour, and gelatin to the set jelly.
Sage
Adds herbal aroma that flavours the meat.
Summer savory
Adds a peppery, herbal aroma that flavours the meat.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture in the muslin bag. The meat must be pressed firmly and evenly so the chopped pieces bind together as the gelatin cools and sets. Pressing too lightly leaves a loose, crumbly head cheese that will not slice cleanly.

Swap the summer savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, sage):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, sage. 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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