Skip to main content
Main

To Collar Pig's Head

A preserved pig's head prepared by salting, soaking, boiling, and collared with skin and meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 brain.

  3. Soak the head in water overnight, then drain.

Cure

  1. Rub the head with saltpetre.

  2. Rub the head with common salt.

  3. Let the head sit for 24 hours.

  4. Cover the head with water in a pan.

  5. Let the head sit for 2 more days.

  6. Wash the head well.

Cook and set

  1. Boil the head until the bones come out.

  2. Remove the bones.

  3. Remove the skin first.

  4. Chop the meat into 1-inch pieces.

  5. Season the meat with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  6. Place one side of the skin in a long pan.

  7. Press the chopped meat into the skin.

  8. Cover with the other side of the skin. Press down.

  9. Let it cool to set.

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 skin and bones that release gelatin to help the dish set.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat, helping preserve it and giving it a pink colour.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.

The step that matters

Let it cool to set. Gelatin released from the skin and bones during boiling firms as the dish cools, binding the chopped meat. Pressing firmly before it cools helps the pieces knit together into a firm, sliceable collar.

“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

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes