A beautiful large organic pig's head from Bennettsbridge, landed up on my kitchen table. This was a particularly meaty one and deserved special attention.
Recipe for Brawn: Place the half the pig's head in a large pan, along with some root vegetables, herbs and in this case some dry roasted spices. Cover with water and simmer slowly for about three hours.
Once cooked, the meat should be beginning to fall off the bone, discard the vegetables and herbs and remove the head from the stock.
Boil the stock until it has reduced down, after adding juice of one lemon and a desert spoon of white wine vinegar. Add fresh parsley stalks and remove after ten minutes, for added flavour.
Pick the meat off the head, including the tongue and ear (if you wish). Discard the surplus fat and bone.
Place the diced meat in a bowl and season well, with teaspoon salt, desertspoon of ground black pepper, about a third of a nutmeg, grated and a teaspoon of allspice. Added the grated rind of one lemon and several spoonfuls of chopped, fresh parsley.
Prepare a dish or a mould by greasing it with butter and placing a slice of lemon and a little parsley on the bottom.
Mix the meat, herbs and spices well. Then gently place in mould, and pour on your simmering stock, which should have reduced enough, so that it just fills your mould with the meat in it.
One it has cooled down, place in fridge for several hours until set. To remove from mould, place it briefly in hot water for a few seconds and then run a sharp knife around the edge, place a plate on top of mould and invert and tap gently until the jellied brawn drops out.
Slice and eat cold, with some homemade chutney or pickle. If your friends are squimish, tell them that it is a pork terrine and they will love it. If we eat meat, we should respect the animal that we are eating and not waste good meat, we should always endevour to make use of the entire animal. This is a pleasure and not an ordeal.
