#pigs head

Brawn

I’m so stoked to eat headcheese sandwiches with homemade bread for the next few weeks weeeeeee!!!!!

Making this was generally straightforward, however removing the hair and eyelashes from the head was a little strenuous and time consuming. I brined it for a day, with salt, sugar, pepper, mace, allspice and bay leaves. My stock had carrots, leeks, onions, celery, a head of garlic, lemon zest, parsley, thyme, allspice, mace, bay leaves, pepper and coriander. Basically you just simmer the head in the stock until the meat starts falling off, take the head out and start picking the meat and fat off by hand once it cools. You put the meat into a terrine dish usually (I didn’t have anything that would fit inside to press it down so I used a pie dish) and you ladle over some of the stock over the meat mixture. Then you put it in the fridge overnight and the gelatin in the stock (which comes when the collagen in the head is cooked and is converted to gelatin) holds it all together like glue! Literally like glue, it took quite a bit of effort of remove the plate that I used to press down the headcheese overnight when I took it out the following morning.