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Boar's Head

A boiled boar's head seasoned with salt, sugar, spices, and stuffed with veal, pork, and other ingredients.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 34 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,331 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, tree nuts, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Bone the boar's head.

  2. Place the head in pickle for 3 weeks to 1 month.

  3. Rub the head with a mixture of salt, sugar, lemon juice, cocoa, sage, mustard, spices, pepper, lemon peel, tamarind, cumin, and almonds.

  4. Pound the mixture until smooth.

  5. Rinse the head well.

  6. Lay the head flat.

Stuff and cook

  1. Stuff the inside with a mixture of veal, pork, egg yolks, parsley, olives, anchovies, tongue, bacon, pistachios, and truffles.

  2. Fasten the head in cloth.

  3. Boil the head in stock or water with vegetables and spices for 5 to 6 hours.

  4. Let the head cook gently.

  5. Tighten the cloth.

Chill and serve

  1. Refrigerate the head overnight.

  2. Serve the head on a silver 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Lemon + sagetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together887 recipes

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

  4. Sage + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together331 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,154 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

Salt
Cures the meat and draws out moisture while seasoning it deeply.
Veal
Adds tender, mild meat to the stuffing that softens during long cooking.
Pork
Adds fat and moisture to the stuffing, keeping the filling juicy.
Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing and add richness and a smooth texture when set.
Tongue
Contributes rich, tender meat and savoury depth to the stuffing.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky savouriness that flavours the surrounding stuffing.

The step that matters

Let the head cook gently. Boiling vigorously toughens meat and can break up the head; a gentle simmer keeps the proteins tender and the stuffing intact as collagen softens.

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, cocoa powder, sage, ginger, nutmeg, allspice):

  1. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Sweet potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, cocoa powder, sage, ginger, nutmeg, allspice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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