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Pork Cheese

A preserved pork head and tongue terrine served with vinegar and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pork Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Cure and clean

  1. Sprinkle the pig head and tongues with coarse sea salt and a little saltpetre.

  2. Let them sit for 4 days.

  3. Wash the head and tongues.

  4. Tie them in a clean cloth.

  5. Boil until the bones easily come out of the head.

  6. Remove the skin carefully.

Shape and press

  1. Place a bowl in hot water.

  2. Cut the head into small pieces.

  3. Lay two strips of cloth across each other in a round tin shaped like a small cheese.

  4. Wrap the skin around the tin.

  5. Fill it halfway with the seasoned meat.

  6. Add sliced tongue.

  7. Add the rest of the meat and tongue.

  8. Tightly draw the cloth across the top.

  9. Place a board or plate on it.

  10. Add a heavy weight.

  11. Leave it to cool completely.

  12. Remove the weight.

Serve

  1. Serve with vinegar and mustard for luncheon or supper.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. 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 head
Provides the meat and gelatin-rich bones and skin that set the head cheese.
Pig tongues
Add tender sliced meat and richness to the pressed loaf.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and draws out moisture during the curing period.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives it a characteristic pink colour.

The step that matters

Pressing the cooled loaf. Pressing while the meat cools lets the gelatin from the bones and skin set and bind the pieces into a firm, sliceable loaf. Removing the weight too early can leave it crumbly.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cabbagefits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar. 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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