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Pork Cheese
Take four pounds of rather underdone cold roast pork, one pound of which should be fat, and the rest lean. Cut it into small neat pieces, and season rather highly with pepper and salt. Chop small six or eight large sage-leaves, and mix with them two table-spoonfuls of minced parsley, half a tea-spoonful of powdered thyme, half a tea-spoonful of powdered marjoram, two blades of powdered mace, a tea-spoonful of minced lemon-rind, and a quarter of a nutmeg, grated. Put the meat into a mould, sprinkle the savoury powder in with it, and just cover it with strong, nicely-flavoured gravy. Bake in a moderate oven. Let the meat stand till cold, and turn it out before serving. Vinegar and mustard should be eaten with pork cheese. Time to bake, one hour. Probable cost of pork, 9d. to 11d. per pound. Sufficient for a moderate-sized breakfast dish.
A potted-meat loaf set in its own jellied gravy, meant to be sliced cold. The whole thing hinges on the gravy: if it does not set, you have baked pork in a puddle rather than a cheese.
- Moderate ovenUsually read as about 350F (175C). One hour is enough to heat the meat through and melt the fat into the stock.
- The gravy must gel"Strong, nicely-flavoured gravy" means a reduced stock rich in gelatin — pork bones, trotter or rind simmered down until it sets firm when chilled. A commercial broth will not set; if you use one, dissolve about 1 tablespoon of powdered gelatin per 2 cups of liquid, or the loaf will not slice.
- Start from properly cooked porkThe meat gets a further hour in the oven in the mould, which is why the roast is specified "rather underdone." Use roast pork cooked to at least 145F, and make sure the assembled mould is heated right through in the oven; the meat is being reheated here, not cooked from raw.
- Blades of maceTwo blades is roughly 1/4 teaspoon ground mace. A quarter nutmeg, freshly grated, is about 1/2 teaspoon.
- Cut and packSmall neat pieces means a rough 1/2-inch dice, not mince — the cut surfaces are what you see when it is sliced. Aim for the stated one part fat to three parts lean and press the meat down firmly, or air pockets will collapse the loaf.
- Chilling"Let the meat stand till cold" means overnight in the refrigerator. Dip the mould briefly in hot water to turn it out. It keeps three or four days, chilled.
- Yield and vesselFour pounds of meat plus gravy to cover wants a mould of at least three quarts, and will serve roughly eight to twelve as a cold cut. The vinegar and mustard are not optional garnish — the acid is what makes a rich fatty slice edible at breakfast.
Pork cheese belongs to the same family as brawn, head cheese and fromage de tête: "cheese" here means only that the meat is pressed into a mould and turned out in a firm sliceable block, with no dairy involved. Where brawn used the head, ears and trotters, this version is a thrifty second act for the remains of a roast joint, which is why Cassell's files it as a breakfast dish — Victorian breakfast tables ran heavily to cold sliced meats, potted things and a pot of mustard. The seasoning is the standard English pork register of the period: sage, thyme, marjoram, mace, nutmeg and lemon peel, the same blend that went into sausages and forcemeats. The costing in pence per pound, a routine feature of Cassell's, was aimed at housekeepers budgeting a week's meals rather than at cooks improvising.