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Boiled Pig's Head
Take out the bone from half a pig's head, rub it over with salt and put it into a basin with a few sweet herbs, cloves and peppercorns. Pour over one-half pint of vinegar and let it remain for a day or so. Take it out, drain, wipe it dry on a cloth, singe it and cut it in pieces; put them in a saucepan, pour in the strained vinegar pickle, add a little water and a few vegetables cut in pieces, place the pan over the fire, bring to a boil, then cook over a slow fire for four hours. Take out the pieces of meat, trim the outer sides of the tube of the ear, place it in the center of the dish with the pieces of meat round it, pour over some poivrade sauce, and serve. Pig's Kidneys, Maitre d'Hotel Clean and wash some pig's kidneys, cut them down the center without quite dividing them and run them through with a skewer to keep them fast. Rub them with a little butter, sprinkle over salt and pepper, put them on a gridiron over a clear fire, and broil for fifteen minutes. Take them off when done, remove the skewers, put them on a dish, pour over a little maitre d'hotel sauce, and serve.
Two related grill-and-simmer dishes from the pork end of the Waldorf larder. Both assume a butcher who will hand over a boned half head and a pair of kidneys the same morning, and a cook who knows what poivrade and maître d'hôtel sauces are without being told.
- Sourcing the headHalf a pig's head is a special order from a whole-animal butcher; ask for it split, boned and with the ear left attached, since the boning is fussy work around the jaw and snout. A half head is a substantial piece of meat and skin, enough for a group, though weights and yields vary a good deal with the size of the animal.
- Singeing, and when to do itSingeing -- The point of singeing is to burn off bristle stubble that scalding missed; bristles left in the skin spoil the eating. A kitchen torch over the ear and snout works; scrape the scorched skin with a knife and rinse before the meat goes in the pan. The recipe already places the singeing after the vinegar marinade and before the pieces go into the pan.
- Half a pint of vinegarOne US cup. It is a marinade rather than a preserving pickle, so use plain cider or white wine vinegar; the herbs, cloves and peppercorns go in whole.
- "Let it remain for a day or so"In 1896 that meant a cold larder. Marinate covered in the refrigerator for 24 hours, turning once. Raw pork should not sit out at room temperature for a day, vinegar or no vinegar.
- Four hours over a slow fireThat is a bare simmer, surface barely trembling, not a rolling boil — hard boiling shreds the meat and clouds the liquid before the collagen has finished softening. The head is done when the skin yields to a fork with no resistance. Add water as needed to keep the pieces just covered.
- The earTrimming "the outer sides of the tube of the ear" means squaring off the ragged edge so the ear sits flat as a centrepiece. It is presentation, not preparation; the ear is edible and gelatinous once cooked.
- Poivrade sauceA brown sauce sharpened with vinegar and coarsely crushed peppercorns, strained before serving. Any good peppery brown sauce, or the reduced and skimmed cooking liquid finished with butter and cracked pepper, serves the same purpose.
- The kidneys: fifteen minutes is too longPig's kidneys broiled a quarter of an hour turn grey and rubbery. Split, skewered flat and set close to a hot broiler, they need only a few minutes a side, but pork kidney should be cooked right through rather than left pink. Snip out the white core with scissors before skewering, and soak them in cold water or milk for 20 minutes if you dislike the ammoniac edge.
- Maître d'hôtel sauceIn practice, softened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper, sliced and laid on the hot kidneys so it melts at the table. Two kidneys per person is a fair serving as a savoury course.
Oscar Tschirky, who was never a chef but ran the Waldorf's dining rooms and put his name to this 1896 collection, was compiling a reference for a hotel kitchen rather than a home cook, which is why a boned pig's head sits here with no more ceremony than a chop. The whole head — boiled, boned, pressed and set in its own gelatin — belongs to the same tradition as English brawn and American head cheese, and this version stops short of that, serving the pieces hot with the ear upright in the middle. Poivrade, the peppered vinegar-sharpened brown sauce, was the classic partner for strong meats and game in the Escoffier-era repertoire, and the vinegar marinade preceding the long simmer does the same job it does in a game marinade: it firms and seasons the meat and cuts the fattiness of the skin. Pig's kidneys follow because both are cheap parts handled with expensive technique, which was much of what a great hotel kitchen actually did.