Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Brawn, Ormskirk
Ingredients
Directions
Cure and prepare
Soak all the meat in brine for 5 days, turning daily.
Rinse the meat and dry the meat.
Cook the meat
Boil the meat until the bones slip out.
Skin the tongues.
Season and set
Chop all the meat into small pieces.
Season the meat with black pepper, ground nutmeg, sago, salt, and a pinch of cayenne.
Reduce the cooking liquid to about 1 cup.
Stir some of the liquid into the meat in a saucepan and heat until hot.
Pour the mixture into molds or basins and let it firm up.
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.
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Head of a small pig
- Provides collagen-rich bones and connective tissue that gel as the broth cools.
- Ears of a small pig
- Adds cartilage and skin whose collagen helps the dish set firm.
- Feet of a small pig
- Adds gelatin-rich collagen that helps the cooled liquid set into a firm jelly.
- Tongues
- Contributes rich, tender meat and fat to the chopped filling.
- Sago
- Acts as a starch that thickens the liquid and helps bind the set mixture.
The step that matters
Reduce the cooking liquid to about 1 cup. The liquid must be concentrated enough to set. Collagen from bones, skin and feet releases gelatin during long simmering, and too much water leaves the brawn soft and unable to hold its shape when cooled.
“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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