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Pig's Head in Jelly
Clean a small pig's head and feet, put them in a saucepan with two calf's feet, one onion and a bunch of sweet herbs; season with salt and pepper, squeeze in the juice of a lemon and moisten to height with water; set the pan over the fire until it boils, then remove to the side and cook slowly for two or three hours, or until the meat is tender. When cooked take the head and feet out of the liquor and remove all the bones, cut the meat in small piece and mix with it a small quantity of roast meat or any remains of cold cooked tongue or poultry. When the cooking liquor has partly cooled, skim off all the fat, strain it through a fine hair-sieve, return it to the pan and boil until it is reduced to the consistency of thick jelly. Put the meat in the liquor with a few pickled gherkins and one tablespoonful of vinegar, and season with salt, pepper and a little grated nutmeg or mace. Stir the mixture over the fire till thoroughly hot. Coat the inside of a mould with a small quantity of gelatine, arrange at the bottom a design cut out of pickled beet-root and around the edges finely-minced parsley and the separated yolks and whites of hard-boiled eggs. Over these articles place a thin layer of the mince being careful not to disarrange them; leave it until set, then fill the mould up with the remainder, pack the mould in ice or let it stand for one night in a cool place, as the contents must not be turned out till well set, then dip the mould in tepid water, turn the head out on a dish that has been embellished with a folded napkin or an ornamental dish-paper, and garnish with a few sprigs of well-washed parsley.
This is head cheese under a formal name: a pork-and-gelatin terrine set in a decorated mould. Nothing in it is difficult, but two things decide whether it works — the strength of the jelly and the length of the chill.
- The hinge: test the jelly before you commitRather than judging "the consistency of thick jelly" by eye in a hot pan, spoon a little of the reduced stock onto a cold saucer and refrigerate it for a few minutes. It should set firm enough to hold a cut edge. If it stays slack, reduce further; if you overshoot and it turns rubbery, thin it with a little water.
- Sourcing the head and feetOrder a split pig's head from a butcher; even a small one is bulky and unlikely to fit an ordinary stockpot whole. Calf's feet are now specialty items — pig's trotters are the usual substitute for the gelatin, or use trotters plus a tablespoon of powdered gelatin bloomed into the finished stock as insurance.
- "Moisten to height"The phrase means adding water just to the level of the ingredients: cover the meat, no deeper. Excess water means a longer reduction later and a flatter-tasting jelly.
- Heat and timingBring to a boil, then hold at a bare simmer — surface barely trembling. Two to three hours is right for the feet; a large head may want three and a half. Boiling hard emulsifies the fat into the stock and clouds the jelly, which is troublesome to put right afterwards.
- Hair-sieveA sieve of woven horsehair was standard fine-straining equipment of the period. Use a fine-mesh sieve lined with a double layer of damp cheesecloth, and let it drip rather than pressing it through.
- Season it harder than tastes rightThe mixture is seasoned hot and eaten cold, and cold suppresses salt and acid. Taste the warm mince, then add a little more salt and vinegar than seems necessary. Use whole blade mace or freshly grated nutmeg — the pre-ground kind fades.
- The gelatine coating and the decorationBrush the chilled mould with a thin layer of liquid gelatin and let it set before laying in the beet, parsley and separated egg yolk and white — otherwise the design floats. Add the first layer of mince barely warm, not hot, or it will melt the coating.
- Chilling and unmouldingOvernight in the refrigerator, not merely a cool larder. To turn out, dip the mould in warm water for five to ten seconds only and invert onto a chilled platter.
- Yield and keepingA small head with two trotters makes a large quantity — enough to fill a good-sized mould and serve a crowd as a first course or buffet dish. Slice with a thin, wet knife. Keep refrigerated and eat within a few days; it is not a preserved product despite the vinegar.
Pressed, jellied pig's head is one of the oldest forms of thrift cookery in Europe, surviving as English brawn, French fromage de tête, German Sülze and American souse or head cheese — a form often explained by the fact that a head yields a great deal of gelatin and meat and very little that can be roasted. What marks this version as Waldorf work is everything after the mince: the gelatin-lined mould, the design cut from pickled beet, the ring of sieved egg yolk and white, the folded napkin on the serving dish. The Waldorf of Oscar Tschirky, the hotel's maître d'hôtel, was operating in the era of the elaborate cold buffet, when a chef's standing rested partly on garde-manger display, and the same technique of setting decoration into aspic at the bottom of a mould was applied to salmon, foie gras and chicken alike. The instruction to work in "any remains of cold cooked tongue or poultry" is the older, frugal recipe still visible beneath the ornament.