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Mock Brawn

A preserved meat dish made from a hog's head, salted, boiled, and set in its own skin.

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

Mock Brawn

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the head

  1. Clean the hog's head, remove the brains and ears, and rub salt into the head.

  2. Let it drain for 24 hours.

  3. Apply saltpetre and common salt to the head.

  4. Let it sit for 3 days.

  5. Place the head in a pan, cover with water, and let it soak for 2 more days.

  6. Wash it well.

Cook and shape

  1. Boil the head until the bones can be removed.

  2. Chop the meat into 1-inch pieces, removing the skin from the head and tongue.

  3. Season the meat with pepper and salt.

  4. Place one side of the skin in a small pan, press the chopped meat into it, and cover with the other side of the skin.

  5. Let the brawn cool.

  6. If the head is too fatty, add some lean pork.

Pickle and finish

  1. Boil salt, vinegar, and cooking liquid together.

  2. Once cooled, pour the mixture over the head.

  3. Boil the ears longer than the head.

  4. Cut the ears into thin strips.

  5. Distribute the strips around the brawn.

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

Saltpetre
Cures the meat, helping it keep its pink color and firm texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the set brawn.
Hog's head
Provides the meat, skin, and connective tissue that set into the gelatinous brawn.
Cooking liquid
Carries gelatin from the boiled bones and skin, helping the brawn set when cooled.

The step that matters

Boil the head until the bones can be removed. Underboiling leaves meat tough and gelatin under-extracted, so the brawn may not set; overboiling makes the meat fall apart and cloud the jelly.

“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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