408900 Wed Jun 06 14:51:55 -0700 2007 9 31 Home Cooking 0 2636316 My friends are slaughtering four pigs tomorrow and are giving me a head. I'm quite excited about it and my wife thinks I'm a bit strange! I made head cheese two years ago from a recipe off the internet, but this time I thought it would be fun to see if any chowhounds have a personal recipe from family or friends. I'm also going to see if I can score some jowls to make guanciale. After reading and listening to the book Heat, I'm even nuttier than before about pig parts!! I'll let you all know how the cheese turns out. Wed Jun 06 14:51:55 -0700 2007 87511 taco clandestino 1 2642573 By now you've got your head and jowls (you lucky man!) I picked up "Chrcuterie" by Michael Rhlman & Brian Polcyn about a month ago- their head cheese sounds pretty good! 1 pig's head 4 Trotters 2 gallons Brine (Basic water/salt/sugar)- they add some pink salt, but it's only for color in this recipe 1 cured pork tongue 2 cups white wine Bouquet garni (Leek, bayleaf, thyme, parsley) 4 cloves garlic 10 peppercorns 6 cloves Salt Ground nutmeg & allspice- to taste (optional) 1 tblsp white wine vinegar 1) brine head & trotters overnight 2) drain, rinse. Put everything but the vin, salt, allspice & nutmeg into a large stock pot and add enopugh water to cover by two inches. Bring to a boil, then back down to a simmer for about 3 hours- skim regularly- the meat should be tender- the jawbone should come off easily. 3) remove the meat to cool slightly 4) Strain the cooking liquid, skim the fat. Test the strength of the stock by pouring a small quantity onto a cold plate- the gell should be firm, but not too rubbery. Reduce stock as needed- add salt, vin, and spices to taste 5) remove the meat from the head, trotters, and peel tongue- 1/2 -3/4 inch dice. 6) line a terrine mold or crock with plastic wrap with enopugh overhang to cover, add in the meat, pour in just enough stock to cover. Cover with the plastic, then chill overnight Fri Jun 08 11:53:33 -0700 2007 2636316 39914 lunchbox 2 2644440 Thanks for the recipe lunchbox. I was wondering if the Ruhlman/Polcyn book was worth buying. What do you say? I'm interested in recipes that a DIYer can pull off without a PhD in garde manger. By the way, the "cheese" came out pretty well. Made tacos with it last night: corn tortillas warmed up, cold headcheese, cilantro, red onions pickled in lemon juice. I'm writing up a story on the experience and will soon post it here on this thread. Sat Jun 09 07:31:30 -0700 2007 2642573 87511 taco clandestino 3 2644968 Sounds great! I want head tacos! The Ruhlman book is great- It takes pains to say that it may be written by professionals, but it is geared for the home cook. I was originally hesitant to buy the book because I was looking for something "for PhDs" because I am a cook by profession and wanted to start doing a lot more charcuterie at home. But once I started leafing through it, I knew I had to have it. It is a recipe book, but there is a lot of emphasis on technique- once you cook the 12-20 variations of each major theme, even a home cook would feel ready to butcher a whole hog! Sat Jun 09 12:30:48 -0700 2007 2644440 39914 lunchbox 2 2645576 I have Ruhlman's book, and to my cajun palate, his fromage de tete is way too tame. The process is fine, but I wouldn't use the tongue and pink salt, and I would add some chunks of leaner pork (from a shoulder or whatever you have) to supplement the smaller, stringier bits of meat from the head. Season with plenty of garlic, some fresh thyme, salt, black pepper, cider vinegar, ground cayenne pepper, lots of chopped fresh parsley, and finely chopped green onions. Once the bouilli is thick enough to gel, put in more green onions (I like 'em to have the slightest bit of raw crunch in the gelled finished product). I like headcheese spread on good french bread for breakfast! Sat Jun 09 18:52:51 -0700 2007 2642573 12023 Hungry Celeste 2 2645863 The seasonings in this sound delicious--would there be some way to make this with just a regular piece of pork from somewhere else on the pig? Sat Jun 09 22:05:26 -0700 2007 2642573 42470 blue room 3 2647525 We do this....the head is too much trouble, hard to find, a pain to cook/clean. Use a mix of fatty & lean pork, with some feet for the gelatin. Sun Jun 10 18:23:18 -0700 2007 2645863 12023 Hungry Celeste 3 2647602 In Craig Claiborne's Southern Cooking cookbook, he has a recipe for Mock Headcheese. It uses pork knuckles, pigs feet and ham, among other things.. It was alot of work (not nearly as much as for the real) but was nevertheless delicious. He also has a headcheese vinaigrette which really added to it. Made many a convert to appreciating these lesser-used piggy parts. Sun Jun 10 19:01:13 -0700 2007 2645863 10877 Sarah 1 2645697 http://www.hertzmann.com/articles/2007/tete/ Sat Jun 09 20:15:16 -0700 2007 2636316 10743 yayadave 1 2647651 A favorite, but a process that takes a bit longer than lunchbox’s: After singeing and scraping the head, removing brains, and quartering the head, rub all with sea salt, place in cloth covered bowl, repeat salting five times over four days. Put wiped-down head sections, tongue, some pork rinds, the rest, carrots, onions, garlic, boquet garni in pot; add water; bring to a boil, skim scum, simmer very slowly for 3 hours. Remove and cool solids, remove all bony bits; cube solids. Adjust seasoning. Mix bits with some strained cooking liquid. Place all of that in a terrine or large bowl; pour in more of the strained liquid, arranging all the bits. Cover the cheese and weigh down a bit. Let cool and set for a day. It is all that lovely protein-rich collagen in the head broth that gives you the final jello surrounding the cubed-up head, ears, and tongue stuff! Sun Jun 10 19:31:17 -0700 2007 2636316 36661 Sam Fujisaka