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Potted Pig's Head
Clean a pig's head thoroughly, washing it in strong salt and water; put it n a saucepan with plenty of water, and boil slowly. When very tender, so that the bones can be easily removed, drain the head, separate all the meat from the bones, and pass the cooking liquor through a fine hair-sieve, When the liquor is quite cold, skim off the fat and pour the liquor into a saucepan, being careful not to disturb the sediment. Cut the meat in medium-sized pieces, put it in with the liquor, and boil for half an hour, seasoning to taste with salt, pepper and a little Jamaica pepper. Pour the meat and liquor into moulds, leave until cold. Then tie stout paper over the tops. It may be kept for six weeks in a cool cupboard.
This is old-style brawn — head cheese set in its own gelatine. The cooking is sound, but the keeping instructions belong to a world of cold stone larders and different expectations, and they are the reason this one cannot be followed today.
- Why the storage failsA cooked, moist, low-acid, low-salt meat jelly held six weeks in a cupboard is a hospitable medium for bacterial growth, including Listeria and toxin-forming staphylococci, and any airless pocket under a fat cap raises the further risk of Clostridium botulinum. Nothing in the method sterilises the mould, seals it against air, or adds a measured cure; stout paper tied over the top is not a barrier.
- No cure, no acid, no measured saltThe salt here is seasoning "to taste," not preservation. Long-keeping potted meats relied on a heavy salt or saltpetre cure, a thick sealing layer of clarified fat, or both, in quantities the cook could repeat. None of that is specified, so there is no way to make the six-week claim safe by judgement.
- The reheating does not rescue itThe half-hour boil after boning is a genuine kill step, but the meat is then handled, moulded and cooled slowly in a large mass — the phase where recontamination and spore germination happen. If you want brawn, use a current recipe with stated cooling, refrigeration and use-by limits.
- Jamaica pepperAllspice, the dried berry of Pimenta dioica, not a chilli and not a blend. It was the standard warm spice for brawn, potted meats and pickles throughout the nineteenth century.
- Hair sieveA sieve of woven horsehair, long-standing kitchen equipment that predated cheap fine wire mesh; it was also said to be preferred because metal could taint or discolour salty and acidic liquids. A fine nylon sieve or muslin does the same job.
- "Being careful not to disturb the sediment"This is the one piece of craft worth noting: the cloudy settlings at the bottom of the chilled stock carry bone grit and scum, and pouring them in gives a murky, gritty set instead of a clear amber jelly. Decant, and stop short.
- Why it sets at allNo gelatine is added because a pig's head is exceptionally rich in collagen — skin, snout, ears and cheek. Long slow simmering converts it, which is why the recipe gives a test (boil until the bones lift out cleanly) rather than a time.
Potted pig's head is brawn, or head cheese — one of the oldest and most widespread ways of using the part of the animal that will not roast or fry, found under different names across Britain, Germany, France and the American South. Its appearance in Oscar Tschirky's book is a reminder that even a hotel as grand as the Waldorf ran a kitchen on whole carcasses, and that the same larder producing terrapin and canvasback also had to account for heads, feet and trotters. The keeping advice still assumes a cool cupboard, although mechanical refrigeration was being installed in large hotels by this period.