443468 Fri Sep 21 09:40:34 -0700 2007 10 31 Home Cooking 0 2963034 And now for something completely different... A pig's head is coming to my house this weekend, and is going to get made into headcheese. I can't get enough of the stuff on banh mi, and want to try making it at home. But the only recipe I can find for gio thu is in (go figure) Vietnamese. http://cooking.vnunited.com/index.php?loi=570 Failing all else, there's always the classic European recipe (for example, the Ruhlman version discussed at http://www.chowhound.com/topics/408900 ). But that looks a little bland. Does anybody have a recipe for Vietnamese-style headcheese, suggestions on how (or whether) to modify the Ruhlman recipe, or any other insights? Thanks! Fri Sep 21 09:40:34 -0700 2007 58743 alanbarnes 1 2963628 I wish I could help - but I cant wait to hear how it goes. Sounds like an awesome cooking project. You may want to look up "Suelze" the german name. I loved the german head cheese - practically lived off sandwiches of it while a student in berlin. Fri Sep 21 11:46:27 -0700 2007 2963034 14086 kare_raisu 1 2963738 here is a link to the recipe i found that is very similar to how my mom made it. http://www.globalprovince.com/spicelines/recipes/giothu.htm it says to use banana leaf but my mom always used only alumunium foil. what she did was take a 2 liter soda bottle and wrapped a thick layer of alumunium foil around it. then she taped the bottom of it, so it could almost stand up by itself when she was filling it. and she just really packed it down. hope this helps. Fri Sep 21 12:10:46 -0700 2007 2963034 92286 vttp926 1 2964076 I'm not a professional translater, and the person who the wrote recipe definitely is from a different region than I am, but here's a rough translation of the recipe. Ingredients: Pig's ear Either pork or chicken (equal parts meat and ear - doesn't specify but use ground meat) cat's ear fungus garlic whole peppercorns ground pepper salt sugar fish sauce oil (doesn't specify; I'd go with veggie oil) Method: - mix meat, fish sauce, sugar, [ground] pepper - prepare cat's ear (soak in water until soft then julienne) - clean the pig's ear, ridding it of fur, etc then put in a pot of boil water until a chopstick can be poked through but being careful to not cook it to a too-soft consistency - stir fry the marinaded meat, cat's ear, julienne pig's ear, mince garlic, and peppercorns in a few spoonful of oil, adding half a cup of water to prevent burning - season with salt, sugar, etc - place mixture into moulds (author of recipe notes that she uses the Chinese take-out soup containers) - what you use isn't as important as making sure that things are packed and airtight. - place in fridge until solid The ingredients list for this recipe is pretty similar to all the good ones I've had (and my mom's on the very rare occasion when she used to make this), though I've never seen it made with chicken ever. The recipe from the above poster looks fine (and had the added bonus of having amounts). No offense to that person's mom, though, but I'm unfamiliar with bacon and onion being used in a traditional gio thu, which isn't to say that it isn't used so much as I'm just not familiar with any that does. Fri Sep 21 13:25:44 -0700 2007 2963034 17410 Ali 2 2965153 different regions use different things. my mom is from the south but some of her cooking has northern influences. so i'm not sure. it has been a while since my mom made gio thu. but the uncured bacon in that recipe definetely sounds like something my mom used. in vietnamese it is called thit ba roi. not sure what the accents are on it. but we never used ground meat in our gio thu. Fri Sep 21 20:55:03 -0700 2007 2964076 92286 vttp926 3 2965401 That's the problem. I would never call thit ba roi uncured bacon, but I guess that is what it is. Oh well. As for the recipe, like I said, it didn't specify ground meat, and the author may well have meant for whole meat to be used, but thit ba roi is one of those things that, when used, is usually specified and not just mentioned as pork. Sat Sep 22 04:25:11 -0700 2007 2965153 17410 Ali 1 2965214 My father's favorite headcheese had visible flakes of dried jalapeno peppers in it - like pizza peppers. We used to buy it from supermarkets in New Orleans where each place usually has a selection. This stuff was wonderful. A favorite with grits or as a sandwich. We made it several times and always made sure to add some new veggies near the end of cooking to give some texture to the finished product. I likes sliced and minced scallions and a little minced celery. Some finely minced carrot for color. Recipes are all pretty straightforward. You just have to adjust the seasonings to taste and adapt for color and texture. Fri Sep 21 21:37:43 -0700 2007 2963034 32444 MakingSense 2 2965377 they had dried jalapeno peppers in it? the only ones i ever seen had the black peppercorns. oh how do i miss the things from new orleans. there was one company (Tuyet Huong) down there that specializes in the different cha. they ship to other states but it just isn't the same. Sat Sep 22 02:20:59 -0700 2007 2965214 92286 vttp926 3 2965647 These are really folk recipes. No reason why you can't adapt them - within reason, of course - to your own taste. Daddy was Cajun and his family in the country used to butcher their own hogs and make all sorts of products. We lived in the city so generally bought our headcheese but he liked it spicy. When I was in LA recently, I even saw non-pork versions of headcheese. No reason why not. The technique is similar to daube en glacé. Just meat scraps in meat gelatin. Economical use of everything but the oink or moo or whatever. Don't get too hung up on a recipe beyond using it for technique and process. Sat Sep 22 08:11:39 -0700 2007 2965377 32444 MakingSense 4 2968838 i know that everyone has their own recipes. so many variations of the same old favorites for any kind of cooking. i just commented that i never seen ones with jalapeno peppers at the ones in new orleans. but no doubt it probably was great. wish i could have tried it since i love eating spicy things now that my taste buds has grown. Sun Sep 23 17:27:07 -0700 2007 2965647 92286 vttp926 1 3015985 Thanks, everybody, for all the suggestions / translations / other assistance. After a slight delay in obtaining the head, I am now the proud parent of four loaves of head cheese. I simmered the head and a few aromatics (onion, carrot, celery) for about four hours. (The vendor forgot to saw it in half, so thank goodness for the 34-quart stock pot.) By then, the meat was falling off the bone, but the stock was nowhere near gelatinous enough. So I fished out the solids, defatted, and put the spurs to the pot. Once it was reduced by about 75%, I added back the meat picked from the skull, along with peppercorns (a handful each of black, white, and green), crushed red peppers, fish sauce, white wine, thyme, garlic, and sliced onions. Simmered everything together for a while to bring the flavors together and cook the garlic and onions, then poured it into loaf pans and refrigerated. The result is very meaty--there are not a lot of pockets of gelatin. It's not at all homogeneous; some of the meat is meltingly tender, some has more "tooth," and there are occasional bits of crunchy cartilage from the ears. The taste of pork predominates, but the herbs and spices are also noticeable, and the fish sauce lends depth of flavor. On a baguette with mayo, soy sauce, cilantro, and pickles (carrot, daikon, and onion), this stuff is da bomb. If I do say so myself. Mon Oct 08 16:11:04 -0700 2007 2963034 58743 alanbarnes