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Tonbridge Brawn

A preserved pork head with ears and feet, seasoned, pickled, boiled, and wrapped in cloth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 the pork

  1. Split open the head of a porker and remove the brain and bones.

  2. Strew the inside with coarse sea salt and let it drain overnight.

  3. Clean the ears and feet, then wipe off the brine.

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

  5. Rub the ears and feet with a mixture of saltpetre and sugar.

  6. After 12 hours, add coarse sea salt.

  7. Pour vinegar over them the next day.

  8. Turn them in the pickle every 24 hours for a week.

  9. Wash off the pickle.

  10. Boil the ears and feet for about 1.5 hours.

  11. Bone the feet while warm.

  12. Trim the ears.

Season and roll

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

  2. Wash the head, then wipe it.

  3. Flatten the head on a board.

  4. Cut some flesh from the thickest parts.

  5. Season the meat with spices.

  6. Intermix the meat with that of the ears and feet.

  7. Roll it tightly.

  8. Bind with tape.

  9. Wrap in a pudding cloth.

  10. Tie securely at both ends.

Cook

  1. Place in a braising pan or suitable vessel with bones, herbs, onions, celery, carrots, peppercorns, and enough cold water to cover.

  2. 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. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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

Pork head
Forms the main body of the brawn, providing the meat and gelatinous texture once cooked.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat and helps it keep its pink colour during the long pickling.
Sugar
Balances the salt and softens the flavour of the cure.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the pickle, sharpening flavour and helping preserve the meat.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 4 hours. A gentle simmer lets collagen in the bones and feet slowly break down into gelatin, which sets the brawn. A hard boil can toughen the meat and cloud the set.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, mace, pepper, clove):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, mace, pepper, clove. 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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