Whenever pig heads came into the kitchen I squealed with joy. The act of taking a whole hog's head and turning it into a piece of charcuterie I've sold for $16 a slice is a magical process and a fading tradition of nose to tail eating. I learned to make it at Heartland, the well-known farm to table restaurant run by Chef Lenny Russo. Today I'll show you how to make your own head cheese (fromage de tete in French) from a pig head at home.
What is Head Cheese?
Simply put, headcheese is brine-cured, cooked meat from a pig head mixed with its reduced cooking liquid and packed into a loaf mold. The cooking liquid is rich in collagen that firms when cooled, making it a sort of meat jelly meatloaf.
Head cheese tastes mildly spiced and porky like ham. It does not have a gamey iron flavor to it like liver. Think of it like the best pork lunch meat you've ever had.
It's a good example of the great food inspired from frugality and different cuts of meat where nothing goes to waste. When it's made correctly it's a work of art, with a mosaic pattern resembling a stained glass window of pork.
Headcheese Ingredients
First you need a pork head, preferably sawed in half by a butcher so you can get at all the tidbits and secret chambers of the head.
Besides heads, you can also use other cuts of pork like shanks, hocks or trotters. You'll want to call a butcher or a pig farmer for a fresh or frozen hog head, halved.
Optional ingredients are a tongue, and pork trotters. And you'll need time as it takes at about 3 days to make headcheese. Also, it's getting harder to find scalded pork, and most heads I see are skinned now, which is fine and slightly easier to deal with.
You'll be knuckle deep in pig face, peeling meat from a skull like a cave person. But, if you do it well, you will have some serious bragging rights among your friends who know their charcuterie.
How to Make Headcheese (Step-by-Step)
There's a few steps: brining the pig head, cooking and picking the meat. Lastly, you reduce the liquid to concentrate the gelatin and pack the headcheese into a mold. The images below describe the process.
Brining
First the bring is cooked and chilled, then poured over the halved pig head. This is refrigerated for a few days to cure.
Cooking
After brining, the head is covered with water and vegetables and cook until tender.
Chilling is optional, but it makes removing the fat easier, and even after skimming you may need to trim the finished terrine a bit, which is fine.
Removing the meat
After cooking the meat is removed from the head. Fat and gristle are discarded, along with anything with a strange or blubbery texture.
Assembling the headcheese
The cooking liquid is strained and reduced until only 2 cups remain. The meat is cut into rough cubes, which is best to do when the meat is cooled off.
Once the meat is chopped it's mixed with the reduced cooking liquid and packed into a loaf pan.
After trimming the finished head cheese can be frozen or refrigerated for a week.
Once you make headcheese you'll be able to create your own aspic terrines. Beef neck or shank terrines are great. I've even made one with venison trotters.
Related Posts
Classic Pork or Hog Headcheese (Fromage de Tete)
Equipment
- 1 large pot
- 1 Large container for refrigerating the head in brine
- 1 Large strainer or sieve
- 1 Loaf pan or large coffee can or another mold
Ingredients
Brine
- 1 gallon water
- 1 gallon very cold water or ice water
- 1 cup kosher salt
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 4 oz (10tsp) pink salt (prague powder, not Himalayan pink salt)
Head cheese
- 1 pig's head halved, brains removed and saved for another purpose
- 1 pig's tongue optional
- 1 pork trotter, halved (optional) This will give the stock extra gelatin, but is optional.
- 2 cups each chopped carrots, leeks or onion and celery
- 1 garlic bulb halved
- 1 bottle dry white wine (4 cups)
For the bouquet garni
- 10 sprigs of thyme
- 1 bunch of parsley
- 3 fresh bay leaves
- 10 black peppercorns
- 5 cloves
- 1 whole nutmeg
- 5 whole allspice
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seed
Instructions
- Put the head halves in the container they will stay in for the duration of the brining process and cover with water by an inch so you know how much brine to make. Depending on how you'll store them you may need more brine than the two gallons. Scale the brine ingredients to your needs-1 cup Morton Kosher Salt 10 teaspoon pink curing salt no 1 and ½ cup brown sugar for every 2 gallons of liquid.
Brine
- Bring the ingredients for the brine to a boil, then add the cold water and allow to cool. Place the halved head, tongue, and trotter if using In a large container and cover with the brine, making sure they're completely covered. If you don't have a large fridge, consider doing this in the winter so you can keep it cold outside--the salt will prevent it from freezing.
- If the head is stored vertically, make sure they're situated so the nose points up. The neck / jowls are where the best meat is and you want it to cure thoroughly.
- After 24 hours, remove the head from the brine and put into a large stock pot with the bouquet and remaining headcheese ingredients. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then cook covered for 3-4 hours, or until the jaw wiggles easily from the skull.
- Chill the pot overnight and remove the fat (optional). The next day, heat the pot until the head is warmed through.
- Using tongs remove the cooked head slices to a baking sheet.
Tongue
- Peel and diced the tongue into ½ in cubes.
Picking the meat from the head
- Working carefully to avoid bone fragments, remove the meat from the head and discarding connective tissue, skin, fat, bone, cartilage, or anything that doesn't look delicious or feels like it would be awkward in your mouth.
- Chop the meat roughly, mix with the tongue, and reserve in a covered container. Don't miss the ocular meat behind the eyes as it's some of the best.
Reduce the liquid
- While you're picking the meat from the head, strain the braising liquid, then return it to a simmer on the stove in a wide pot. Reduce the liquid by half, then slowly down until 2 cups remains. This will take a while.
- Test the gel of the braising liquid by spooning some onto a frozen plate or a metal bowl over ice. The liquid should gel easily when it cools. If it doesn't, reduce the liquid in ¼ increments, continuing to test until it gels and sets nicely.
- I usually need about 2 cups of liquid for the terrine.
Chill and Form
- Line a terrine mold or bread pan with plastic wrap so that there is enough plastic hanging over the edges to cover the terrine completely when the pan is filled.
- Mix the diced, braised meat with half the reduced cooking liquid and pack into the pan or mold. Pour the reserved braising liquid over the top. Tap the pan on a cutting board or another hard surface to help the liquid distribute throughout the terrine.
- Fold the plastic over the top of the mold. Place the mold on a cookie sheet to catch any drips of gelatinized stock. Refrigerate the headcheese.
Serving and Unmolding
- The next day, un-mold the headcheese remove the plastic, and slice ½ in thick with a long, sharp knife to serve. The headcheese will keep for a week.
Video
Notes
- Add a pork trotter for extra gelatin.
- You can use pork shanks instead of a head.
- Used a smoked pigs head if you have a smoker.
- Lamb or goat heads don't have enough meat to make headcheese.
- It's possible to over-reduce the braising liquid which will give headcheese the texture of a super ball. It should be solid enough to cut with a knife, but not so hard that it's rubbery. It should taste pleasant and melt in your mouth.
Joe
Can this be made with Prague powder? I'm kind of nitrites averse thanks. I am having my pigs processed on Tuesday so I'll have a stomach for a mold.
Alan Bergo
Yes, it won't be quite the same look or flavorwise, but it'll be close. Use all Kosher salt, including the salt that would've been prague powder.