Skip to main content
Main

To Collar Pig's Head

A preserved pig's head made into brawn by salting, soaking, boiling, and pressing with skin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 and cure

  1. Scour the pig's head and ears thoroughly.

  2. Remove hair and snout.

  3. Take out the eyes and brains.

  4. Soak the head in water overnight.

  5. Drain the head.

  6. Rub the head with 2 ounces of saltpetre and 2 ounces of coarse sea salt.

  7. Place the head in a pan with just enough water to cover it.

  8. Let the head sit for two more days.

  9. Wash the head well.

Cook and prepare the meat

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

  2. Chop the meat into 1-inch pieces.

  3. Remove the skin from the head and tongue first.

  4. Cut the tongue into bits.

  5. Season the meat with pepper and salt.

Shape and set

  1. Place one side of the skin in a small pan.

  2. Press the chopped meat into the skin.

  3. Cover with the other side of the skin.

  4. Press down on the covered skin.

  5. Let the mixture cool.

  6. Turn it out as a type of brawn.

Finish with the liquid

  1. Boil 2 ounces of salt, 1 pint of vinegar, and 1 quart of the cooking liquid.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Pour the cooled liquid over the head.

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
Skin and bones release gelatin during boiling, which helps the brawn hold together when cooled.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat, helping preserve it and giving it a pink colour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, aiding preservation.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps keep the finished brawn fresh.

The step that matters

Boil the head until the bones can be easily removed. Boiling too little leaves the meat tough and the bones hard to remove. Boiling too long breaks the meat down too far. Skin and bone collagen turns into gelatin during cooking, which is what sets the brawn when it cools.

“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