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Pork and Lamb

A pig's head served with a finely minced meat mixture, gravy, and bread crumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Pork and Lamb

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the tongue and brains from the pig's head. Dry the halves of the head with a cloth.

  2. Mince the heart, liver, half of the lights, brains, and tongue very finely after removing the skin. Season the minced meat with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Make the minced meat

  1. In a saucepan, combine the minced meat with gravy thickened with butter and flour, and add mushroom ketchup. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the head with beaten egg. Sprinkle the head with bread crumbs.

  2. Bake the head at 350°F (175°C) until lightly browned. Baste the head with dripping while baking.

  3. Serve the head on a hot dish. Surround the head with the minced meat. Garnish with parsley. Squeeze lemon juice over the head just before serving.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's head
Forms the main dish, and its skin and meat brown and set during baking.
Butter
Enriches the gravy and adds richness and flavour to the minced meat.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the minced meat rather than running thin.
Beaten egg
Brushed on the head, it helps the bread crumbs stick and encourages browning.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the outside of the head as it bakes.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savoury, umami depth to the gravy and minced meat.

The step that matters

Simmer the minced meat gently and stir it. Minced meat in thickened gravy can scorch and stick to the pan at high heat. Gentle simmering with occasional stirring keeps the flour-thickened gravy smooth and evenly cooked.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper, butter, flour, mushroom, ketchup, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, butter, flour, mushroom, ketchup, egg. 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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