Headcheese (or Koseliena) Recipe
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Category: |
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Ingredients: |
Ingredients: Choosing the Meat Cut:
Traditional recipes made use of the less meaty or appealing parts of the pig such as the flesh of the head with brain, eyes, and ears removed.
Modern day recipes use a simpler, more common pork cut such as pork hocks or pork shoulder. Look for a pork cut that has a good proportion of lean meat, with some bone and pork skin, to obtain flavours from each of these elements.
Fresh pork hocks are a good choice, but other cuts such as fresh pork shoulder (with skin attached) may be used; ensure any excess fat is trimmed and discarded.
Making Headcheese is a two step process that takes place over a couple of weeks:
1. Salting and curing the meat for at least a week.
2. Following the curing, the next steps are cooking, preparing the meat, and assembling the Headcheese.
Curing the Meat
Cure Ingredients:
12 lbs (or 5.5 kgs) of fresh pork shoulder with skin attached or fresh pork hocks.
1.5 gallons (6.8 litres) of hot water
3 cups coarse pickling salt
2 tablespoons dextrose or granulated sugar
4 tablespoons pickling spices
2 tablespoons Saltpetre (Potassium Nitrate) to retain the meat's red colour
Preparing the meat and assembly following curing.
Ingredients for this stage:
¼ cup powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons ground white pepper
1 teaspoon ground dried ginger
½ teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 tablespoon ground cloves
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Directions: |
Directions:Curing the Meat:
1. In a large stainless steel pot or food grade plastic bucket, combine hot water, pickling salt, dextrose, pickling spices, and saltpetre. Cool to room temperature.
2. Cut the meat into 1½ inch thick pieces or larger, if preferred. As much as possible, try to have similar size pieces to ensure even curing.
3. Cover pot or bucket and refrigerate for a minimum of 7 days.
Preparing the Meat and Assembly
1. Have 1 or 2 pound aluminum foil loaf pans ready, or molding dish of choice.
2. Remove the meat from the curing liquid, rinse and place in large pot. Add enough fresh water to cover the meat. Cover and bring to boil; cook at a moderate boil for 1½ to 2 hours. Remove meat to large bowl and cool to room temperature, reserving the cooking liquid. The meat can be cooked on a burner outdoors to avoid excess steam in kitchen.
3. Skim the surface of the reserved cooking liquid and remove floating fat. Avoid including fat in the final product.
4. Using a meat grinder, pass the pork skin though the grinder.
5. Add gelatin to reserved cooking liquid and heat to slow boil, stirring constantly to dissolve the gelatin. Remove from heat and set aside.
6. Discard the bones and cut the meat into ½ to 1 inch square pieces.
7. Combine the remaining ingredients and add to the meat mixture; stir thoroughly.
8. Spoon mixture into prepared 5 x 8 loaf pans and add enough of the hot liquid gelatin mixture just to cover the meat/spice mixture. Stir gently to evenly distribute.
9. Refrigerate overnight to harden.
10. When ready to serve, remove the Koseliena from the pans; slice and serve.
11. A sprinkle of vinegar can be added, if desired.
Note: All of the liquid from boiling the meat can be added to the meat mixture to increase the quantity. It will add an additional layer of jelly to the surface of the meat. |
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Number Of
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Number Of
Servings:20 |
Preparation
Time: |
Preparation
Time:2 weeks |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Headcheese (or "Koseliena" in Lithuanian) is a cold cut or jellied meat that originated in Europe. Although originally viewed as a peasant food, Headcheese became elevated to a prized favourite ethnic dish with the addition of exotic spice blends. It is often served at special holiday celebration dinners.
Brendon introduced me to Headcheese at his family home. I liked the unusual texture of the jellied meat; after we were married and moved into our own home, I was open to helping him prepare it. I remember the first time he served it to Papa and Grandma Mulley. They were visiting us in Kingston and enjoyed this much better than the bland grocery store version of "head cheese" they were used to buying.
Dave is now our Koseliena expert and is generous enough to prepare and bring this to family get togethers!
Note: Other recipes included the addition of diced onions and /or grated garlic; these were added mainly to prevent mould growth at the surface of the curing liquid. These ingredients are not required when the meat is refrigerated during the curing process.
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