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Tonbridge Brawn

A preserved pig head, ears, feet, and meat cured with salt, spices, vinegar, then boiled and cooled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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

Cure the head

  1. Split open the pig's head 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, wipe off the brine, and place in a large pan.

  4. Rub the ears and feet with saltpetre mixed with sugar.

  5. After 12 hours, add coarse sea salt to the ears and feet.

  6. Pour vinegar over the ears and feet, turning them in the pickle every 24 hours for a week.

  7. Wash off the brine.

Prepare the meat

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

  2. Bone the feet while warm.

  3. Trim the gristle from the ears.

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

  5. Wash the head without soaking. Wipe the head.

  6. Flatten the head on a board.

  7. Cut some flesh from the thickest parts.

  8. Season the meat with spices.

  9. Intermix the head meat with the ears and feet.

Roll and cook

  1. Roll the mixture tightly.

  2. Bind with tape.

  3. Wrap in a thin pudding cloth.

  4. Tie securely at both ends.

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

  6. Boil gently for 4 hours.

  7. Let cool in the liquid.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's head
Provides the main meat, which sets into a firm, sliceable brawn as it cools in the liquid.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat, helping it keep its pink colour and adding a cured flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.
Sugar
Balances the salt and softens the sharpness of the cure.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the pickle, contributing sharpness and helping preserve the meat.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and depth to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 4 hours. A gentle simmer lets collagen in the head and trimmings slowly break down into gelatin, which sets the brawn. A hard boil toughens the meat and can break up the rolled roll.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, pepper, clove, onion, celery. 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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