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Collared Head

A preserved pork head prepared by salting, boiling, and seasoning, then served cold or fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and allspice work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 272 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Collared Head

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Clean the pork head thoroughly, leaving the ears on.

  2. Remove the brains, black part of the eyes, and tongue, salting the tongue with the head.

  3. Salt the head and tongue well with common salt, saltpetre, and sugar.

  4. Let it sit for a week.

Cook and shape

  1. Boil the head until the meat separates from the bones, about 3 hours.

  2. Remove the meat as whole as possible.

  3. Arrange the meat to form a square, placing the tongue halves together and spreading the ears and feet open.

  4. Sprinkle with white pepper, allspice, and a little salt.

  5. Roll tightly in a cloth and bind with tape.

  6. Boil again until tender.

  7. Press down with a weight and let cool without removing the cloth.

Serve

  1. Slice to serve cold or fry in batter.

  2. It can be kept in pickle but is best eaten fresh.

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. White pepper + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together272 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Pork + allspicetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,194 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Pork + white peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together791 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Pork + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,579 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork head
Provides the meat that is pressed into a single set, collared roll.
Saltpetre
Gives the cured meat its pink colour and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Balances the salt in the cure and softens the savour of the meat.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.

The step that matters

Pressing the rolled head while it cools. Pressing with a weight while the meat cools in its cloth binds the pieces together so the slices hold their shape. Removing the cloth too early can let the roll fall apart.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sugar, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sugar, allspice. 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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