Head cheese or brawn or souse is a jellied loaf or a sausage

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Head Cheeses and Meat Jellies

Head cheese or brawn or souse is in fact not a cheese, but rather a jellied loaf or sausage that may or may not be stuffed into a large diameter casing. It can be easily found in places that cater to Central Europeans, Eastern Europeans and Italians. Traditionally it was made entirely from the meaty parts of the head of a pig but now can include edible parts of the feet, tongue, and heart. It is usually eaten cold or at room temperature as a luncheon meat. Meat from the head of a pig was traditionally used as one of the main ingredients and we may find this fact today less appealing, forgetting at the same time the fact that pork head meat is highly nutritional and flavorsome. Bear in mind that the head is boiled first until the meat easily separates from the bones and then it looks like any other meat. Persons living in metropolitan areas can not buy pork head anyhow but still can make a great tasting product by using different, easier available cuts of meat like pork picnic and shanks (hocks-pig feet).

Many of us have made a head cheese before without even realizing it although pork head meat was not a part of the recipe. What we have made was a meat jelly and often poultry meat or fish and commercial gelatin were used. In Eastern European countries there are countless varieties of meat jellies; for example Polish "Pig Legs in Aspic" (Nóżki w Galarecie). Open any decent cookbook and you will find wonderful meat jellies although different cuts of meats (ham, pork loins, poultry) with fruit and vegatable decorations are employed. This is accomplished thanks to a ready to use commercial gelatin which is mixed with water and creates aspic (jelly) that will envelop any kind of meat of fruit. Don't your kids eat fruit jellos?

Every time we cook meat stock or chicken soup based on bones we are making a weak version of a head cheese. The reason the soup does not become a meat jelly is because there is too much water in it.

Well, thousands of years ago, or after the I and II World War, or even in most countries today, people have had no opportunity to buy a commercially made gelatin and they had to make it themselves. And this is where those un-appealing cuts of meat like pork head, jowls, skins, hocks, legs and fatty picnic legs start to shine. You can not make the real head cheese by using noble cuts like hams, tender loins or other tender lean meats. Those meats may be expensive and doctor recommended but they are not good enough to make a head cheese as they don't contain connective tissues (collagen) that will make natural gelatin. You still can use them to create a modified version of a head cheese but a commercial grade gelatin (made from bones and skins) must be added and of course the taste and flavor of the final product will have nothing to do with a traditionally made head cheese.

A head cheese might look complicated but it is easy to make and think of it as cooking an intensely flavored meat broth that will have to solidify (become a jelly) and that can be accomplished in two ways:

cooking meats that will contain enough bones and connective tissues to produce a natural gelatin. Meat cuts used will be of lower grade and will contain a lot of fat.
cooking leaner and meats that you like but adding extra gelatin to your broth
cooking or using any kinds of precooked meats that you like (ham, poultry, fish) and adding commercially made (from bones and skins-a natural product) gelatin.

Meats. Traditionally made head cheese needs meats with a high collagen content to produce a natural gelatin. This is accomplished by placing meat cuts such as: pork head, hocks (shanks or pig feet) and skins. The skin will be attached to the above mentioned parts so there is no need to look for more skins. All those parts contain bones and are capable of producing a lot of natural gelatin. Commercially produced gelatin is also made from bones (pork and beef) and skins. Before meats will be submitted to cooking in hot water a decision has to be made whether the meats will be cured or not.

Curing meats. Traditionally made products may employ meat curing or not. If meats will not be cured with sodium nitrite they will be of grey color in the finished product and basically the sausage maker does not care much about the fact. He knows that he has used fresh meats and he does not care much about the color or the shelf life of his head cheese which will be eaten in no time by members of his family. Curing pork head or legs is a hassle that requires an extra space in a cooler, needs dedicated containers and will take some time. Head cheeses are not smoked so there is very little need for sodium nitrite and curing.

But it is a completely different ball game for a commercial producer as the only thing he is concerned about is his profit. The product must look pretty and must have a long shelf life otherwise supermarkets will not carry it. As a customer judges a healthy looking meat product by its red or pink color (poultry meat is an exception) the commercial producer must cure meats and add nitrite to get this pink. There is a hidden bonus here for the producer as he will pump meats with a carefully prepared solution (water, salt, nitrite, phosphate etc) to increase the weight of the meat (added water). Of course more chemicals will be added into the solution: to enhance flavor, to prevent color change due to fluorescent lights, to speed up the curing process etc. At the end everybody is happy: the meat processor has sold a lot of water (pumped meats), the supermarkets have a pretty loaded with chemicals product that will keep its color and stay fresh for a long time on its shelves. A consumer knows nothing of this but he is happy as well as the product was on sale and he had a discount store coupon. So now we know why a commercially made product is cured: it looks pretty, has longer shelf life and a lot of water can legally be injected into it.

Meats that were traditionally used for head cheeses were:

pork head (cured or not), often split in half - boiled in hot water at about 90º C (194º F) until meat will be easily removed from bones by hand
pork hocks (cured or not) - boiled in hot water at about 90º C (194º F) until meat will be easily removed from bones by hand
skins - boiled in hot water at about 90º C (194º F) until soft
pork shanks with meat (picnic), cured or not - boiled in hot water at about 90º C (194º F) until soft
lean pork trimmings (cured or not) - boiled in hot water at about 90º C (194º F) until soft
hearts (cured or not) - boiled in hot water at about 90º C (194º F) until soft. Hearts are first cut open and any remaining blood is rinsed away in cold water. The heart is a very hard working muscle and will be of a dark red color due to its high content of myoglobin. It should be diced into small diameter pieces (1/4", 5-6mm) otherwise it will stand out.
tongues (cured or not) - boiled in hot water at about 90º C (194º F) until soft. Pork or beef tongues are very often used and the outer skin on the tongues must be removed due to its bitter taste. It is easily accomplished once the tongues are submerged for a few minutes in hot water.
many head cheeses are made with tongues and a part of the meat mass that was used for making blood sausages (ones without filler material). Kind of a blood sausage in jelly stuffed into a large sausage casing.

Notes:

the bones are much easier to renove when meats are still warm
meats are much easier to cut when chilled
in order to produce broth with sufficient natural gelatin, don't add to much water when cooking meats but just cover them and cook for about 3 hours.

Looking at the above listed meats it is easy to conclude that a person living in a large city should not face any difficulty in making a head cheese. Some substitutions need to be made as pork heads will not be generally available but tongues or even hearts are frequently seen in supermarkets (they are of least importance as they contain little collagen). Instead of using unusual and fatty cuts of the hog (head) which may be available only at specialty butcher stores, the similar results could be achieved by smart substitution of meats and adding some gelatin, even if a natural less fatty broth is produced. Picnic (lower front leg) and pork butt are common items and will make a great head cheese. Picnic and pig feet will produce a lot of gelatin. The product will taste wonderful, but with less work.

Salt, Spices and Other Ingredients. Amount of salt varies between 1.5-2% which is the same as for a typical sausage. Commonly used spices: pepper, nutmeg, mace, allspice, marjoram, onions, garlic, caraway, thyme, ginger.

A meat plant or a farmer will have access to traditionally used cuts of meat


Every year for Christmas and Easter "Dziadek" -the Polish sausagemaker slaughters his own pig	What you see may look gruesome but will make great liver, blood and headcheese sausages.	Pork head	Pork head split in half

Pork head on inside	Picnic leg	Picnic leg

It is what you know that counts when making superior products.

A great product can be made at any conditions and not the amount of space or latest equipment is needed but the knowledge of the subject and sensible work organization as is being demonstrated by Mr. Kruszynka in the photos below, who makes wonderful products in his little kitchen.


Proper work organization makes everything easy	Meat selection	Cooking meats.	Cooked meats

Cooked meats	Cooked meats	Chopping meats	Chopped meats

Meats and broth	Stuffed casings	Cooking sausages	Cooking sausages

Cooked sausages	Traditionally used casing is pork stomach	Applying weight on top of the sausage during cooling. Traditionally made headcheeses are flattened	Finished product. Note the pink color of meats which were cured with sodium nitrite

Head cheese and liver sausage ready to eat

Note: when adding too much water to meats during cooking it is possible to end up with a broth that will contain not enough gelatin and will not set in a refrigerator (will not become jelly). You will have to re-heat your weak jelly, strain the hot gelatine and add a packet of a commercial gelatin. Then re-arrange meats on a plate and pour the hot gelatin over them. When it doubt it safer to follow this procedure than to create unnecessary extra work for yourself.

Meat Jellies

Meat jelly although technically not a sausage follow the same rules of production as a head cheese does. They fit more into general cuisine and many fancy products can be created based on one's ingenuity and imagination. They are basically more refined products where looks of the products play an important role.

Meats will be cured to obtain pink and healthy looking color. Pork and beef hams will be pumped with brine containing salt, nitrite, phosphates and cured, cooked, and diced. Chicken boneless and skinless breast will be pumped up with salt and phosphates, cooked and diced. Breast is often used due to its healthy looking light color and nitrite is not even needed. If nitrite is used the breast will develop a light pinkish color. Skins and fat trimmings will not be included.

Notes:

diced meats must be washed with hot water to remove any fat particles from its surface and then drained. This will make them look sharp in a jelly.
commercial gelatin should be used as it produces a very clean, transparent jelly. Traditionally made meat jelly of pork and beef meat may use natural gelatin (broth) as the looks of the product are less important. Lean cuts of meat such as hams, pork loins, chicken breast or fish fillet will look much better in a clean, commercially made gelatin.
meat jellies are made of lean meats and will taste good even if little salt is added (1.0 %)
gelatin should be soaked in cold (room temperature) water for about 15 min to swell and then mixed with hot water.
decorative pieces such as slices of oranges, apples or hard boiled eggs are used. Herbs, cubed cheese, cracked pepper, slices of pickle, carrots, peas, corn, green scalions are oftenused in meat jellies. The gelatin is often made with wine, brandy and other spirits to create a high quality product.

a thin layer of hot gelatin is placed in a form or any dish or plate and allowed to set in a cooler
decorative items are placed on top of the set gelatin
a new layer of gelatin is poured on top and allowed to set in a cooler
meats and the remaining gelatin are placed on top and allowed to set in a cooler
when ready for consumption the form is briefly placed in hot water what melts a thin layer of gelatin and turning the form upside down will release the meat jelly with decorations being on top.

Commercial gelatin packets come with instructions and are available in every supermarket, for example Knox® brand. If jelly does not want to set in because gelatin was made too thin, reheat your weak jelly, strain it and reinforce it with extra packet of gelatin. Then pour your stronger and warm gelatin over the meats.


Traditional meat jelly made from pork legs (no commercial gelatin added)	Diced ham jelly, commercial gelatin added	Chicken breast jelly, commercial gelatin added	Fish jelly, commercial gelatin added

Traditional meat jelly turned upside down	Diced ham jelly turned upside down	Chicken breast jelly turned upside down	Fish jelly turned upside down

Final Note:

Head cheeses, liver sausages and blood sausages belong to a special group of products that incorporate less noble cuts of meat that will be much harder to sell to the public at least in their original form.What separates those products from other common sausages is the fact that meats are precooked before being stuffed into casings and then they are submitted to a hot water cooking process. Another pecularity is that all those products are often made without being stuffed into casings:

not stuffed in casings liver sausages become pates and are placed in forms and baked in the oven
not stuffed in casings blood sausages are made with fillers and are placed in forms, baked in the oven and become blood puddings or blood meat patties
not stuffed in casings head cheeses are placed in forms, boiled in water and they become meat jellies.

Traditionally made head cheese or meat jelly may look less pretty but will be a product of much higher quality due to the following reasons:

no chemicals added
no water pumped into the product (stronger meatier flavor)
natural broth (gelatin added). Commercially prepared gelatin is a combination of neutrally flavored powder (natural glue) and water and natural broth is a combination of natural glue plus highly flavored meat stock that remains after cooking bones. On cooling this gelatin will subsequently become a jelly and accounts for about 30% of the total weight of the product. What would you prefer to have in your head cheese or meat jelly: 30% of water or 30% of meat broth?

Many people limit themselves to making just one or two types of sausages (fresh or smoked variety) and mistakingly believe that special sausages (liver, blood or head cheese) must be very complicated to make. Yet a head cheese is a very simple product to make as long as one forgets he is making a sausage and starts to think in terms of cooking a hearty meat broth. And when the broth is cooked, all that remains is to separate meats from bones and stuff them in a large diameter casing or place them to cool in any kind of a food grade container.

Commercial processors like to add some wine or vinegar to create a slightly sourly flavor as this will extend the shelf life of the product. Most home made head cheeses don't contain vinegar or wine in its composition, and the head cheese is consumed cold with a vinegar poured on top according to ones liking. Head cheese freezes very well.