Just one? We had at least four in my SUV last fall (pig head season? the pre-Christmas cull I guess?) as we made a run to the Chinese butchers in the east end.
So is that your project or Hahn's? My mother-in-law makes a whole bunch of Chinese dishes from the head, but frankly none of them are as good as a good head cheese.
Although not exactly what you posted about initially, I like to use smoked pigs feet to flavor split pea soup. The result is really tasty and fills you up nicely in the fall and winter months! Cook em long enough for all the fat to break down and the connective tissues to soften and then you can take out the feet and pull the meat right off and add it back to the soup.
I saw a feet recipe that involves a stock and wine boil then a slow grill to crisp the skin that looked pretty good. Is that what yer tinkin'?
No, the dish I remember served in pubs was essentially boiled, served hot, and bland enough that the strong mustard was necessary.
This was a LONG time ago, back in the days when restaurants would target meals that were $3.25, because that was under the threshold for provincial tax, and long before federal tax was introduced. You could eat very well for $3.25 back then.
I have to admit some of the dishes being discussed look tastier than what I brought up.
That head cheese had me going for a while until the photo appeared.
In over 50 years I've never once heard the term 'head cheese', it just conjured up mental images involving dick cheese. Phew....
Quite like brawn but there is no way I'd try it if it were advertised as 'head cheese'.
In over 50 years I've never once heard the term 'head cheese', it just conjured up mental images involving dick cheese. Phew....
Quite like brawn but there is no way I'd try it if it were advertised as 'head cheese'.
Oh, we also have our head cheese.
I got to like it a lot.
My Father was a Country Doctor in the middle of the Argentine Pampas; poor gaucho farmers and cattle risers also grew pigs, of course, but sold them for needed cash, so they wouldn´t *eat* them , they just kept the unsellable parts, such as head, feet, tail, etc. , and made head cheese out of that.
So I went with my Father to "visit patients", an adventure in itself, and we were offered what they had: KILLER milk, *yellow* real butter, homemade bread (cooked in a mud oven), homemade wine, homemade (milk) cheese, a little "chorizo seco" (think best well seasoned and cured Italian Longaniza and Sorpresatta) and all the head cheese you could eat, really no limits on that.
Or if Lunch/Dinner time, pickled pig´s feet or cow/lamb tongue.
If i was a Party or something, then we´d get the whole pig but either sloooooowwwwww roasted on a wood or charcoal fire (up to 8 hours, meat had a unique combination of BBQ smokey flavour and meat-leaves-the-bones flavour and texture)
Direct heritage of Spanish "Cochinillo" where Restaurant owner in person carves the slow oven cooked pig meat with the edge of a platter, no kidding,to show how tender it is.
As you said above, many Countries share similar recipes and ways of cooking.
I got to like it a lot.
My Father was a Country Doctor in the middle of the Argentine Pampas; poor gaucho farmers and cattle risers also grew pigs, of course, but sold them for needed cash, so they wouldn´t *eat* them , they just kept the unsellable parts, such as head, feet, tail, etc. , and made head cheese out of that.
So I went with my Father to "visit patients", an adventure in itself, and we were offered what they had: KILLER milk, *yellow* real butter, homemade bread (cooked in a mud oven), homemade wine, homemade (milk) cheese, a little "chorizo seco" (think best well seasoned and cured Italian Longaniza and Sorpresatta) and all the head cheese you could eat, really no limits on that.
Or if Lunch/Dinner time, pickled pig´s feet or cow/lamb tongue.
If i was a Party or something, then we´d get the whole pig but either sloooooowwwwww roasted on a wood or charcoal fire (up to 8 hours, meat had a unique combination of BBQ smokey flavour and meat-leaves-the-bones flavour and texture)
Direct heritage of Spanish "Cochinillo" where Restaurant owner in person carves the slow oven cooked pig meat with the edge of a platter, no kidding,to show how tender it is.
As you said above, many Countries share similar recipes and ways of cooking.
When my mother was young, her mother often made head cheese, but my mom had no idea how it was made, she just liked it. The one day her mother (my grandmother Rossie, an artist and musician and self reliant gal) asked mom if she would like to help make the head cheese. That was the first time she realized what was in head cheese, and the last time she ate it.
So Tony old friend, what do you need a recipe for and why do you want to duplicate it? Seriously. There are so many good recipes out there, available at the click of a button that your desire for what you describe escapes me.
PM or email me if you want. We can talk. It's been a while.
Cheers.
Different cultures have different approach to a given food, though. E.g. when I lived in Belgium, I could buy chicken liver at the cat/dog food section of bigger supermarkets only...
And they indignantly sent me to a pharmacy to buy a razor, and I thought Bic was French. 🙂
As a kid, there was my High School, perched atop "Avenue H hill", which rose about 100 feet in elevation over about four city blocks. At the south end, was my buddy's grandfather's house. At the north end, another relative, whose importance in this story is that he was the purveyor of the Pig's Heads that ended up in Grandpa's kitchen, to be made into Head Cheese.
Soo ... somehow it was always in winter, but he and I would be sent uphill to fetch the heads, four in all, two in each hand, held by one ear. We eagerly took this task upon ourselves, because ....
Starting at the top of Avenue H hill, we would send the heads down the snow-lubrictated sidewalk, sliding on the necks, curling-style, and race behind them to pick them up at the bottom. There is something inherently hilarious to a 13 year old boy when he sees a pig's head sliding down a sidewalk. If you were lucky, there would be a few girls around to shock at the sight, but even without, the exercise is worthwhile.
That made the task of carrying them another 10 blocks in each hand worth the effort. Plus the Head Cheese, of course. Ukrainian style.
I have in the last few years revisited recipes from the past. Corned Beef Hash, which either every bride knew how to make or she wasn't getting any respect, back in the 30's. Pig's Feet, which my Dad loved but we didn't have often.
The one feature of these old dishes is they are ridiculously inexpensive and inevitably hearty. I find them in old magazines from the past, which you can find online sometimes.
What you don't see in those old recipes, and which has dominated modern cooking, is dishes based on hamburger. For one, when introduced, hamburger was more expensive, per pound, than steak. That sounds incredible today, until you learn they made it from steak.
Not like today, where you can buy a fast food burger made "from 100% beef" but what is left unsaid is it's dairy cows who can't produce enough milk that are the source of factory-made patties now-a-days. Ground beef from steer is only available as fresh, never frozen meat, and you should just check that because it too can be made from cow, not steer.
The Pork Hocks (or "Pigs Feet" if you prefer) are available in my local supermarket often, in the "regular" style (not the smoked versions, which for some reason are twice the price), and are quite inexpensive ... maybe $6 for a kilo, two hocks, which translates to $US 2.15 a pound. I know that meat is somewhat more expensive in the US than here in Western Canada, but still they shouldn't be too expensive no matter where you live.
I've cooked them by first boiling for about half an hour, then removing them from the pot, scoring the skin in a cross-shape (not too deep) and placing them in the oven, on a rack in a roasting pan, tightly covered with foil, with liquid in the bottom. Water + lemons, wine, beer, all seem to do the trick just fine. In essence you are steaming them. Two hours at 325F is just fine. Then finish them on high heat, or perhaps a broil, for a short time, to give some browning.
The flavour is surprisingly rich and they are quite filling. Some potatoes and a salad and you have a very decent, inexpensive meal.
I like the idea of using them in soup; they sound like the perfect pork for baked beans or French Canadian style pea soup.
Soo ... somehow it was always in winter, but he and I would be sent uphill to fetch the heads, four in all, two in each hand, held by one ear. We eagerly took this task upon ourselves, because ....
Starting at the top of Avenue H hill, we would send the heads down the snow-lubrictated sidewalk, sliding on the necks, curling-style, and race behind them to pick them up at the bottom. There is something inherently hilarious to a 13 year old boy when he sees a pig's head sliding down a sidewalk. If you were lucky, there would be a few girls around to shock at the sight, but even without, the exercise is worthwhile.
That made the task of carrying them another 10 blocks in each hand worth the effort. Plus the Head Cheese, of course. Ukrainian style.
I have in the last few years revisited recipes from the past. Corned Beef Hash, which either every bride knew how to make or she wasn't getting any respect, back in the 30's. Pig's Feet, which my Dad loved but we didn't have often.
The one feature of these old dishes is they are ridiculously inexpensive and inevitably hearty. I find them in old magazines from the past, which you can find online sometimes.
What you don't see in those old recipes, and which has dominated modern cooking, is dishes based on hamburger. For one, when introduced, hamburger was more expensive, per pound, than steak. That sounds incredible today, until you learn they made it from steak.
Not like today, where you can buy a fast food burger made "from 100% beef" but what is left unsaid is it's dairy cows who can't produce enough milk that are the source of factory-made patties now-a-days. Ground beef from steer is only available as fresh, never frozen meat, and you should just check that because it too can be made from cow, not steer.
The Pork Hocks (or "Pigs Feet" if you prefer) are available in my local supermarket often, in the "regular" style (not the smoked versions, which for some reason are twice the price), and are quite inexpensive ... maybe $6 for a kilo, two hocks, which translates to $US 2.15 a pound. I know that meat is somewhat more expensive in the US than here in Western Canada, but still they shouldn't be too expensive no matter where you live.
I've cooked them by first boiling for about half an hour, then removing them from the pot, scoring the skin in a cross-shape (not too deep) and placing them in the oven, on a rack in a roasting pan, tightly covered with foil, with liquid in the bottom. Water + lemons, wine, beer, all seem to do the trick just fine. In essence you are steaming them. Two hours at 325F is just fine. Then finish them on high heat, or perhaps a broil, for a short time, to give some browning.
The flavour is surprisingly rich and they are quite filling. Some potatoes and a salad and you have a very decent, inexpensive meal.
I like the idea of using them in soup; they sound like the perfect pork for baked beans or French Canadian style pea soup.
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I ate cheap while a youngster - not a lot of money, a lot of kids (5). A fair number of the dishes mentioned here are ones my mother would never make for my dad. I remember brains & eggs was one prominently refused. On occasion, we did have scrapple, which was everything left over from the pig but the squeal, pressed into a block. I haven't seen scrapple in the stores for years on end - what do they do with those pig parts now?
I need to make a batch of Scrapple. Throw the leftovers in a pot of water and bring to a simmer. Remove bones and skin. add rosemary, sage, salt, black pepper, and cornmeal. Cook till it thickens and pour into loaf pans. Chill, slice and fry.
My mom used to make scrambled eggs and pig brains. I never liked it.
We used to eat a lot of chicken wings, and livers. The popularity of chicken wings in restaurants ruined that fun. I can still make fried chicken livers on the cheap.
My mom used to make scrambled eggs and pig brains. I never liked it.
We used to eat a lot of chicken wings, and livers. The popularity of chicken wings in restaurants ruined that fun. I can still make fried chicken livers on the cheap.
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