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Tonbridge Brawn

A preserved pig head with ears and feet, seasoned and boiled with spices, herbs, and vegetables.

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 pig

  1. Split open the head of the pig.

  2. Remove the brain and bones.

  3. Strew the inside with coarse sea salt.

  4. Let it drain overnight.

  5. Clean the ears and feet. Wipe them from the brine.

  6. Place them in a large pan.

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

  8. Add coarse sea salt after 12 hours.

  9. Pour vinegar over them the next day.

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

  11. Wash off the brine.

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

  13. Bone the feet while warm.

  14. Trim the gristle from the ears.

Season and roll the head

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

  2. Wash the head without soaking. Wipe the head.

  3. Flatten the head on a board.

  4. Cut some flesh from the thickest parts.

  5. Season the meat with spices.

  6. Intermix the seasoned meat with the ears and feet.

  7. Roll it tightly.

  8. Bind with tape. Wrap in a thin pudding cloth. Tie securely at both ends.

Cook

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

  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. 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 head
Forms the main body of the brawn, providing the meat and gelatinous texture.
Saltpetre
Gives the meat its pink cure colour and a characteristic cured flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it during the curing period.
Sugar
Balances the salt and softens the sharpness of the cure.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the pickle, helping to tenderise and preserve the meat.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 4 hours. A gentle simmer keeps the meat tender and lets collagen from the bones and ears break down into gelatine, while a hard boil toughens the meat and makes the set cloudy.

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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