Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Brawn
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Remove the tongue and brains from the pig's head.
Salt the tongue and brains for one day.
Drain the salt.
Cover the head with fresh salt, especially around the eyes and ears.
After three days, add allspice, black pepper, and crushed saltpetre to the brine.
Turn the head in the brine for three to four more days until sufficiently salted.
Cook and press
Boil the head and tongue until tender.
Remove the meat from the bones and cut it up while hot.
Tie the brains in muslin and boil for 30 minutes.
Break the boiled brains up and mix them with the head meat.
Season the mixture with black pepper, allspice, and salt if needed.
Cut the tongue into large pieces.
Mix the tongue pieces with the meat.
Pack the mixture into a collaring tin.
Place a weight on top.
Let it stand overnight.
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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Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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 body of meat that becomes the set, sliceable mass.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour and adds a cured flavour during salting.
- Allspice
- Adds warm aromatic flavour to the cured meat.
- Black pepper
- Adds sharp aromatic heat that seasons the meat throughout.
The step that matters
Pack the mixture into a collaring tin and press it overnight. Pressing while the cooked meat is still warm lets the natural gelatine bind the pieces together as it cools, so the brawn sets firm enough to slice cleanly.
“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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