When you go to the grocery store and you see a burning substance called “head cheese,” maybe it’s just that… a seasoned pig’s head or brain.
Or not.
Pig brains were once used.
I see many recipes online that are called Head Cheese but they don’t make it from the brain. Various recipes seem to use pig’s feet or hunks or roast pork, or something called a shank. I rarely see a recipe that actually uses the brain.
It just sounds gross. Your face wrinkles and you shudder, but the cake we make is pretty tasty.
Grandma used to make her own version because she probably slaughtered her own animals and had access to all sources of delicious food. My husband and some friend were making a “farmer’s sandwich” from game and pork, so Jim home was making a couple of jocinars pork and two pork hearts.
Jim and I decided to make our own version of head cheese using pork heart. We worked together on the project and I was collecting pans and knives and cutting boards and keeping the recipe organized.
First, the heart of the red pig is cut into small pieces and the white muscle of the heart is discarded. The hearts are hollow and it is recommended to cut them into cubes, but it was taken care of. And he added a heap of hearts in a quart pan, in which I had two-tenths of water.
Then I peeled the Vidalia onion and chopped it up a little. He made this out of a cup of onion. which he added to Pan. Celery has a dominant flavor, so we put it in half of the celery, chopped into small cubes. Chop the red pepper bell and add to the pan. I had whole cloves of garlic in the freezer, so I chopped one and added the minced water with the rest.
He opened the spice jar on my shelf, tore it open, and put it back on the shelf.
He turned to me and asked, “What else can we put in there? Mustard
