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Presshopf — Brawn

A gelatinous meat dish made by simmering pig and calf heads with pickled pork, herbs, and spices, then setting the broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Presshopf — Brawn

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the pig's head and calf's head in halves.

  2. Pack the heads and pickled pork tightly in a stew-pan.

  3. Add salt, pepper, ginger, onions, bay leaves, spices, sweet herbs, and garlic if desired.

  4. Pour in enough cold water to cover the meat.

Cook and strain

  1. Cover the stew-pan and simmer until the bones slip out easily.

  2. Remove the heads and slice the meat thickly, including the tongues if cooked.

  3. Strain the cooking liquid and skim off the fat.

Set and serve

  1. Boil the liquid down to a strong consistency, then add lemon juice, white wine, salt, and pepper or cayenne.

  2. Return the meat to the liquid and simmer for a few minutes.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a deep mold and refrigerate overnight.

  4. To serve, set the mold in hot water for a minute, then turn it out onto a dish.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's head
Provides collagen-rich meat and bones that release gelatin, helping the brawn set firm.
Calf's head
Adds more collagen from bones and skin, giving the cooking liquid body to gel when chilled.
Pickled pork
Contributes salty, savoury flavour and extra meat that holds its texture after long simmering.
White wine
Adds acidity and a bright note that balances the rich, fatty meat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts through the richness of the jelly.

The step that matters

Boil the liquid down to a strong consistency. The reduced liquid must contain enough dissolved gelatin to set firmly when chilled. If it is too thin, the brawn will not hold its shape when turned out.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, ginger, onion, sage, garlic, lemon):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, ginger, onion, sage, garlic, lemon. 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.

More brawn recipes

Mock 21Tonbridge 19Sauce 4Ox Head 4Pickle 3Calf's Head 3 See all 9 →

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