This is for the brave-hearted among you!!!!
I’ve put the finished product photograph first…. so be warned! I had someone here for dinner the other night who wouldn’t eat prawns ‘cos they have eyes’! Same person eats all other fish and meat – but I guess they mustn’t have eyes???
I am not particularly fond of brawn. I have these memories of my parents making brawn when we were kids. It did seem to take an age to make it, and the resultant texture, rather than taste, was not something I liked.
Alfie has made brawn here on occasion, and it has been quite nice. However as I am not hugely fond of it, it seems a waste making it for just 2 of us.
Brawn
Dee over at GreensideUp has kindly passed on her friend, Elaine’s recipe for me to share with you.
Firstly make your brine:
- 1 x pigs head
- 12 litres water
- 3 kg salt
- Bay leaves, coriander seeds, allspice, peppercorns etc
- 1 cup sugar
Cut off ears, shave bristle. Place into the prepared brine for 24 hours.
Next day : rinse, wash and scrub.
See he was a happy choppy
Place in a large pot with 3 leeks, 2 carrots, 3 celery, 2 onions and a bulb of garlic, bunch thyme, parsley, zest 2 lemons, 4 tablespoons sherry vinegar, black pepper and a bouquet garni made up with 2 tsp coriander seeds, 2 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp allspice whole, 1 tsp cloves whole, 3 blades mace.
Cook for 4-5 hours at simmer.
Pick meat from bones, strain stick, place meat in loaf tin, add stock to cover (Elaine added a sheet of gelatine just in case). Weight it down (baked bean tins will do nicely).
Refrigerate for 12 hours, slice and serve.
Keeps for 2 weeks in fridge.
I reckon if someone just told me it was a pork terrine I’d be much more amenable to it.
Have you tried it?
A Year In Redwood 
I LOVE brawn! We’re currently making our way through a huge bowl we made with our half head. We didn’t get the tongue in our half (we got the heart) and so made the brawn without the tongue. Even though I like tongue I think the brawn is better without it. You do need to pick the meat off carefully – I found a tooth in my portion the other day! No worse than finding a bone in your fish, really! Love the photos – he really does look like a happy chap!
Thanks a million, June.
I have a memory of gristly bits in brawn as a child! However, I did like (a bit) when Alfie made it!!! 🙂
I saw your post on the butchery… looking forward to your recipes!
Margaret
Thanks for the link Margaret and I hope your readers aren’t too squeamish as no doubt factory produced pork contains parts of a pigs head, we just don’t know about it! I tried (a sliver) of the brawn and was pleasantly surprised… I say that hesitantly as It did stick in my throat knowing what it contained and yet it tasted very nice. Like you, I’m sure if it was covered in pastry and I’d been told it was a pork pie I’d have eaten it without a problem.
Elaine did mention that it was an awful lot of hassle and time to create just one terreine. I imagine in the ‘old days’ that would have been ok as cooks would have been salting and butchering the whole pig in preparation for winter storage, nowadays it’s all a lot more convenient with butchers handing us our packs of pork, nicely filleted and cut and ready for the freezer. It will be interesting to see if anyone else has gone through the process.
Thanks Dee … as I say that is my memory of it… days of cooking and preparation.
Check out June’s comment above about finding a tooth in her bit!!! You should check out her blog too on her description of the butchery she did herself! http://myfoododyssey.com
M
Great post, though that pig’s head makes me feel a little queasy
Hope not too queasy! And thanks for stopping by too.
Margaret
I did read June’s and was impressed with the butchering! She’s right about the tooth of course, we’ve just gotten so squeamish. Have to say I’m impressed by my kids ability to pluck the hairs out of their crackling before demolishing it.
Love it! I actually had a man ring me from over your way and ask if I had chops with the ‘kidney still in and hair on the skin” 🙂
I was going great guns here with my first pig’s head until I got to the tongue! The entire head went out to the dogs and ultimately the fox. The second I fared slightly better but didn’t like the terrine (too fatty)
. Now I have decided I don’t like offal or tete de porc. Maybe call it that, doesn’t sound so bad 😉
See it is all about perception…. if we were to call it tete de porc, or put it into pork pie we might eat it.
M
I love brawn too, though my good lady had never heard of it or seen it (Being a Dub, I guess – they have their own local traditions!) but we filched a recipe off the internet and grabbed a head of GOS when a friend was having her pigs butchered (we’d done a deal on half a carcass for a sheep carcass and she didn’t want the heads). Our own adventures are on http://deefer-dawg.blogspot.ie/2013/12/head-cheese.html
Not too sure if ‘head cheese’ would make it more appetising 🙂