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Pig's Head Cheese
Thoroughly clean a pig's head, split it into halves, take out the eyes and brains, cut off the nose and ears, and pour scalding water over the latter and the head, and scrape them clean. Then rinse all in cold water, and put them into a saucepan with sufficient water to cover, and boil slowly, taking off the scum as it rises. When boiled so that the bones leave the meat readily, take them from the water and put them in a large wooden bowl or tray. Remove every particle of bone, chop the meat small, season to taste with salt and pepper, and if relished, a little chopped sage or thyme. Spread a cloth in a sieve, set in it a deep dish, put in the meat, then fold the cloth closely over it, lay over a plate with a weight on it, which will press equally the whole surface. Let the weight be more or less heavy according as you wish the cheese to be fat or lean; a heavy weight by pressing out the fat will of course leave the cheese lean. When cold, scrape off whatever fat may be found on the outside of the cloth, and keep the cheese in the cloth in a cool place. It should be sliced thin, and can be eaten with or without mustard and vinegar or catsup.
Jellied Veal or Veal Head Cheese Take about two pounds of knuckle of veal, wash it and cut it into two or three pieces. Allow it to simmer in just enough water to cover the meat, until the latter can easily be removed from the bones--which will take from three to four hours. Take it up, remove all the bone, and chop the meat up fine; add to it salt, pepper, mace and finely-chopped shallots and thyme, according to the taste. Put all these into the liquor and boil it until it is almost reduced, then stir in the strained juice of a lemon. Turn it into a mould, and let it stand until the following day. Turn it out onto a dish, and serve garnished with parsley.
Two related preparations: a true head cheese set by its own gelatin, and a lighter jellied veal. Both are straightforward, but the original assumes a cold larder and a butcher who will split a head for you.
- Sourcing the headAsk a butcher to split the head and remove the eyes and brain; many will do this on request, and halved heads are often sold ready-prepared. A half head usually weighs somewhere around 5-10 lb and fits a large stockpot; a whole one often will not.
- The step that mattersEvery particle of bone must come out before pressing. Work the meat with your fingers, not just a knife, and check the ear cartilage and jaw area, where small splinters hide. Chopping conceals bone rather than revealing it.
- Simmer, do not boil"Boil slowly" means a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil. The recipe gives no time for the head; cook until the bones leave the meat readily. A hard boil drives the fat into the liquid and gives a cloudy, greasy set.
- Skim in earnestThe scum that rises in the first twenty minutes is coagulated protein and blood. Removing it thoroughly is the difference between a clear amber jelly and a muddy grey one.
- Use the cooking liquorThe head recipe presses the meat alone, but a modern set is better if you reduce the strained cooking liquid by half and moisten the chopped meat with it before pressing. That liquor is rich in gelatin and will set firm on chilling.
- Pressing and the weightA loaf pan lined with cling film, topped with a second pan and two or three tins, gives even pressure. The original is right that a heavier weight expels more fat and yields a leaner, denser cheese.
- "A cool place" means the refrigeratorThis is a low-acid, moist cooked meat. Chill it below 40F within a couple of hours of pressing, keep it no more than four or five days, and freeze anything beyond that. A pantry shelf is not adequate.
- Seasoning to tasteSeason the chopped meat more assertively than seems right while it is warm; cold jellied meat mutes salt and pepper considerably. Sage, thyme, mace and a little ground clove are all period-appropriate.
- YieldA half head gives roughly two to three pounds of pressed cheese, enough for a substantial cold table. The veal version, from 2 lb of knuckle, fills a small mould of about a quart and serves six to eight as a first course.
Head cheese contains no cheese; the name is usually explained as "cheese" in the older sense of something pressed into a mould, and is often linked to Dutch and German usage — hoofdkaas, Presskopf, Sülze — though the derivation is traditional rather than documented. It belongs to the thrift tradition of hog-killing season, when a whole animal had to be used quickly and the head, rich in collagen, set its own jelly without any added gelatin. The jellied veal that follows is a lighter treatment of the same technique — paler, more delicately seasoned with mace and lemon, and moulded rather than pressed in a cloth.