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Head Cheese
(Nancy.) Boil the forehead, ears, and feet of a pig in 1 quart of water, until the meat will fall from the bones. Cut it into 1/2 inch squares, add salt and pepper, sage and sweet marjoram, and return to the broth and cook till it is thick, then take out the bones and strain it. Arrange the meat in a mould, and pour the jelly over it. When cold, turn out and slice.
A straightforward brawn, written for a cook who already knew what the pot should look like. The instructions are given slightly out of order — the bones come out when you cut the meat, not after the broth has reduced — and the liquid quantity is optimistic.
- The hinge: gelatin, not added setting agentThe set comes entirely from collagen in the skin, snout and feet, so the trotters are not optional flavouring. If the cooled broth does not gel on a chilled spoon, reduce it further before moulding rather than adding anything.
- One quart of water is not enoughThe recipe calls for the forehead, ears and feet, and four cups will not cover even that. Use enough water to submerge everything, then reduce the strained broth hard at the end to concentrate it, which is the likely sense of "cook till it is thick."
- TimingExpect 3 to 4 hours at a bare simmer for the meat to leave the bones. Never let it boil hard; a rolling boil emulsifies the fat into the broth and the finished jelly turns cloudy and greasy.
- Sourcing the partsThe recipe asks for the forehead rather than the whole head. A whole head, split, is generally a special order from a butcher; ears and trotters are more often stocked. Ask for the head split so it fits the pot.
- Seasoning quantitiesThe original gives none. For the meat from one head plus two feet, start with about 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon chopped sage and 2 teaspoons marjoram, then taste the warm broth — cold jelly always reads blander than hot liquid.
- Skim the fatChill the strained broth briefly and lift the fat cap before pouring it over the meat. Rendered head fat sets white and waxy on top of the finished loaf and is unpleasant sliced.
- Moulding and yieldA 1 to 1.5 quart loaf tin or terrine suits the meat from an average head; one head yields roughly 2 pounds of picked meat, enough for 10 to 12 as a cold cut. Press lightly and chill at least 8 hours before turning out.
- KeepingThis is a fresh preparation, not a cured one. Refrigerate and eat within four or five days; serve cold with mustard, or with vinegar, a common accompaniment for brawn.
Head cheese contains no cheese -- the name is generally explained by the older sense of "cheese" as anything pressed into a mould and turned out as a firm block, the same logic behind lemon cheese and damson cheese. In Britain the dish is brawn, in France fromage de t"ete, in Germany S"ulze or Presskopf, and versions exist wherever pigs were killed at home and nothing was wasted; the head, ears and feet were the parts no one could roast, and boiling them released enough collagen to bind the scraps into something sliceable. Its appearance here under "(Nancy.)", apparently a contributor's name, is typical of community-compiled collections, which gathered whatever the subscribers actually made, so a thrifty farmhouse preparation sits alongside company dishes. Recipes of this kind assume knowledge that has since been lost from most kitchens -- how long a head takes to fall apart, how much water it needs, how thick is thick enough.