No. 2570

Pig's Head

Tete ou Hure de Porc

Have a well scalded and cleaned pig's head, singe and bone without destroying the skin, beginning from underneath; fill it with layers of fine pork forcemeat (No. 68), placing on each one some lardons of fat pork (No. 1, Fig. 52), pistachios, truffles and quenelle forcemeat (No. 89), into which chopped-up ham has been mixed, and then rolled into the same sized pieces as the lardons. When the head is filled sew it up and reshape it as before, then wrap it in a cloth and cook in a stock (No. 194a) for four hours; unwrap and return it to the cloth to give it the shape of the head; unwrap once more, pare well, glaze over with meat glaze (No. 402), and dress on a low socle; put in glass eyes and place natural fangs in the mouth; decorate the head with tongue, hard-boiled egg-white and pistachios; surround with chopped jelly and a border of croutons (No. 2442).

← No. 2569 Woodcock Pie Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2571 Larded Pullet with Jelly →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a galantine built inside the skin of a whole pig's head, meant as a cold buffet centerpiece rather than as dinner. Ranhofer writes it as a set of cross-references, so the real work is assembling four other recipes before you start.

The hinge: skin integrityEverything depends on boning the head from underneath without piercing the skin, since the skin is the casing that holds the stuffing. Work with a small, very sharp boning knife, keep the blade angled against the bone rather than the skin, and allow plenty of time the first time. Any tear must be stitched before filling or the forcemeat escapes into the stock.
What the numbered references areNo. 68 is a fine pork forcemeat, No. 89 a quenelle forcemeat, No. 194a a stock, No. 402 a meat glaze, and No. 2442 croutons; the recipe names them but you will need to look each one up. Substituting a modern pork sausage meat for No. 68 works; the quenelle forcemeat, which is what sets the mosaic pattern into firm rods, does not have a good shortcut.
LardonsThe recipe calls for lardons of fat pork cut to the size shown in Fig. 52, with the ham-and-quenelle rods rolled to match them. Cured fatback or unsmoked salt pork is closest; supermarket "salt pork" is usually too lean and too salty, so soak it and taste. The point is that fat, pistachio, truffle and the ham forcemeat all appear as distinct dots when the finished head is sliced.
Cooking and donenessFour hours at a bare simmer, never a boil, or the skin splits and the fat renders out. Judge by internal temperature of the forcemeat rather than the clock: it needs to reach at least 160F/71C throughout, which in a mass this large may take longer than four hours if the head is large or the stock too cool.
The two wrappingsRanhofer unwraps, rewraps to reshape, then unwraps again; the likely purpose is to set the shape while the meat is still hot and soft, then let it cool firm. In practice: lift the head out in its cloth, tighten and retie it snugly into the outline of a head, and chill overnight in that cloth, ideally weighted lightly. It slices only when cold.
Socle, eyes and fangsA socle is a shaped display base, traditionally of rice paste, semolina or carved fat, sitting on the serving dish. Glass eyes were a bought item; Ranhofer specifies "natural fangs", so the tusks from the head itself are the obvious source. None of this is edible, and a plainer presentation loses nothing but theatre.
Chopped jellyThe "chopped jelly" surrounding it is clear aspic set firm, then broken up with a knife for sparkle. Strain and clarify some of the cooking stock for it; a head yields plenty of natural gelatine, so no added leaf is usually needed.
Yield and coolingA boned, stuffed head will serve a large number as part of a cold table. Cool it out of the danger zone promptly rather than leaving a hot mass on a counter overnight, and slice thinly, cold, with a long knife.

A Little History

Hure is the old French word for the head of a boar, and the decorated boar's head was a feast centerpiece in Europe long before it became a domestic pig's head dressed up with glass eyes and bought tusks; the Christmas boar's head processions of English colleges belong to the same tradition. By the time Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894, drawing on his decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, the dish had become a showpiece of the cold buffet, which is why it sits in a chapter of garnishings and displays rather than among the roasts. Its placement tells you what such kitchens were for: a brigade with time to bone a head, build three separate forcemeats and carve a socle existed to be seen, and a sliced hure revealing its mosaic of fat, pistachio and truffle was an advertisement for the house. The technique itself is straightforward charcuterie, closely related to the head cheese and fromage de tête that the same animal produced in far humbler kitchens, minus the ornament.