Head cheese

Now and again I simply must have a head cheese sandwich, and soon. Today was one of those days. Fortunately, the only market around here that keeps it in stock is close, so I zoomed off and back and satisfied my craving.

I tried to make head cheese when I was a grad student. What else do you do when you return from class to find a hog's head in a box on your front porch? My friend John Basham played butcher and, knowing my fondness for head cheese, gave me a gift. My attempt, however, was a failure. The hardest part was breaking up the head to fit into the pots we had. A long story. Here's a recipe that sounds better than the one I tried to follow forty years ago.

Hogs Head Cheese
PREP TIME: 3 Hours
YIELDS: 4 (1 pound) trays


COMMENT:
Many cooks today feel that hogs head cheese is a country rendition of the more classical daube glace. Though similar in nature, I feel head cheese is the by-product of sausage making such as boudin, and has been around for hundreds of years

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 hog head, split and cleaned
* 4 pig feet, scraped and cleaned
* 4 pounds pork butt
* 3 cups onions, finely diced
* 3 cups celery, finely diced
* 2 cups bell pepper, finely diced
* 1/2 cup garlic, finely diced
* 2 whole bay leaves
* 1 tsp dry thyme
* 1/4 cup peppercorns, whole
* 1/2 cup green onions, finely sliced
* 1/2 cup parsley, finely diced
* 1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely diced
* 1/2 cup carrots, finely diced
* salt and cracked black pepper to taste
* 3 envelopes unflavored gelatin, dissolved

METHOD:
In a 4-gallon stock pot, place all of the above ingredients up to and including the whole peppercorns. Add enough water to cover the contents by 3 inches and bring to a rolling boil. Using a ladle, skim all foam and other impurities that rise to the surface during the first half hour of boiling. Continue to cook until meat is tender and pulling away from the bones, approximately 2 1/2 hours. Remove all meat from the stock pot and lay out on a flat baking pan to cool. Reserve 10 cups of the cooking stock and return to a low boil. Add all remaining ingredients, except gelatin and salt and pepper, boil for 3 minutes and remove from heat. Season to taste using salt and cracked black pepper. Add dissolved gelatin and set aside. Once meat has cooled, remove all bones and finely chop in a food processor. Place equal amounts of the meat in four trays and ladle in hot seasoned stock. The mixture should be meaty with just enough stock to gel and hold the meat together. Cover with clear wrap and place in refrigerator to set overnight. Head cheese is best eaten as an appetizer with croutons or crackers.

Without a doubt, the best head cheese I ever had I bought in a small market in a village on the northern coast of Nova Scotia. It was called Potted Head. Amazingly fantastic. Ate it at a cliff overlooking the stormy ocean, at a time when I thought I was deliriously happy, not knowing that even then my partner was in inner turmoil as the seeds of truth about her sexuality sprouted toward their explosive revelations, delirium ending quickly thereafter.