Have pigs head - need recipe!

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Well, the pork's in the freezer, the hams are curing, the lard is rendered, and all we have left are the heads! We want to make head cheese, but have "lent out" all our relevent books. Could somebody give us a quick rundown of what we're supposed to do, please? Specific questions- do we have to remove teeth? Are the brains supposed to get into it? Does it help to break the skin? Is it worth the trouble!? Thanks

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), January 29, 2001

Answers

I believe the brains were removed for the separate delicacy of hog brains and eggs. At one time you could buy hog brains at supermarkets. I also believe the tongues went into sausage meat.

Here is what is in Putting Food By:

Farm-Wife's Pork Head Cheese

Required: One hog's head, thoroughly trimmed and then quartered, salt and pepper.

Put the well-scrubbed quarters in a large kettle and cover with unsalted water. Simmer until meat falls from the bone - about three hours. Remove from heat and let cool until the meat can be handled, but don't let the broth get so cold that the fat congeals. Drain away the liquid, strain it well and return it to heat to reduce by 1/3rd or 1/2.

Put the meat - which has been picked from the bones and gristle - into a wooden chopping bow and chop it very fine. Add enough reduced broth to make a wet mixture and season all to taste with salt and pepper. Pack in several standard-size bread tins about 3/4 full. Nest one pan on top of another with waxed paper in between and weight the top pan to press all the meat properly; if extra juice is pressed out it can be saved for stock if desired. Set the stack in the refirgerator overnight. In the morning slide each loaf from its pan and wrap it in moisture-vapor-resistant paper; freeze.

Of course you may add herb seasonings if you like; but do try this simple rule first before you jazz it up. This head cheese is nothing like the commerical products. It's grand in a sandwich; and served with slices of cold Liver Loaf and homemade Bologna Sausage (both q.v. ?) it makes the best platter of cold cuts ever.

Enjoy.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 29, 2001.


Thanks for the info. Does anyone know how to "quarter" a pigs head?

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), January 30, 2001.

Electric chainsaw? I would worry about grease and oil in a combustion one. Big ol' honkin' bandsaw? It's not something that us veggies generally have to worry about, although there was that absolutely, obscenely large sweet potato we gleaned one year....

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), January 30, 2001.

When we butchered our pig my husband wanted me to make Hogs head cheese out of it. I relunctantly agreed but because I was so busy at the time I wrapped the head real well an d put it in a cardboard box in the freezer. Meanwhile our two older boys were busy digging a hole in the pasture, you know how boys like to did? Well this hole became humongous and my husband was afraid the cow woul fall in and hurt herself or worse we would have to hire someone to come and haul her out. So he told the boys to fill in their hole. When they started I had a wonderful inspiration and ran to the freezer and got that cardboard box and threw it in. It was buried so deep nothing [but boys] could ever did it up. My husband never ask about it and I didn't have it staring me in the face everytime I opened the freezer. I did ,years later, confess...he just laughed! That's my best recipe!

-- Artie Ann Karns (rokarns@arkansas.net), January 31, 2001.

OK - I aM AN EXPERT AT THIS ONE!! Take the pigs head and stick it in a big pot (you can add the feet too!). Add water and boil the heck out of it (something like 3 or 4 hours. You can add some salt and spices to the water. Now cool down the situation so you can touch it- pick off the meat - it will all just fall off the bone. Chop it up roughly (lets say 1/2 -1 inch chunks). Mix in salt, orange peel, nutmeg, pepper, pistacchios (if you like), chopped olives (once again optional), and just about anything else that comes to mind. Here we have special sacks to put the head cheese into - like a wax paper bag tube thing about 5 inches in diameter. Fill that up, close the top and poke holes all around it to let the liquid out. Hang it up in a cool spot and the next day it is ready. It is really easy to make (I love to make it but don't eat much - still trying to figure out what the big difference is between eating a pig snout and a porkchop!!)

Good Luck (PS: when you serve it to your guests, present it as a special type of deli meat made from pork - they will love it ! If you tell them it is pig head they may not even try it!)

-- kelly (kellytree@hotmail.com), January 31, 2001.



Artie Ann, I like your "recipe!"

-- Lenore (archambo@winco.net), January 31, 2001.

Thanks everybody, the information will be put to use sometime! I have to confess that the head went to the dogs in the end, so it won't be this year. It was our first try with hogs - hopefully we'll have our act more together by next year.

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), February 01, 2001.

The first year we butchered the pig the head went to the dog too! But not anymore!!

We are butchering the poor piggies next weekend (if it stays cold enough)

-- kelly (kellytree@hotmail.com), February 02, 2001.


Hoi, im nessan, i love pigs faces aswell! nothing like a big plate of pigs face standing by the wall!

-- Nessan Mon (nessan@nessanland.com), February 25, 2002.

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