Nibbly Pig Meets the Comité de salut public* I

Practicalities
There are a few things to consider when you decide you want to set about cooking a pig's head.

Have you got a pan big enough for it to fit in?
I know it sounds kind of obvious, but it's one of the things that made me tackle the task. I'd bought a large pan recently and realised that it was probably big enough for a pigs head to fit in.

How are you going to cook it?
I'd originally planned on turning the whole thing into Brawn, or Head cheese as it's sometimes known. I suspected that I'd end up with quite a lot of food for one person. In the end I found this recipe by Fergus Henderson for half a pigs head. There is also a video of him cooking it and it's always handy when you're trying something for the first time to have as much information as possible. Hopefully this post and the pictures will help out anyone thinking of cooking a Pig's head for the first time.

Have you got the tools to cut the pigs head in half, now you've decided that's how you're going to cook it?
I have a small cleaver, but wasn't sure it'd be up to the job. To be honest I wasn't sure the work surface in the kitchen would be up to the job of me trying to cleave a head in two. Do you know how thick a pigs skull is? Neither did I until I'd cooked this. So I got the woman at the Market to cut it in half for me. She had a big cleaver and proper butchers block to chop on.

Have you got the stomach for it?
I have friends that will not eat meat off the bone. Some people are squeamish about cooking a chicken. Cooking this you're going to have a pigs head in your kitchen. A kind of grisly item to have sitting on the side and to deal with. Especially if your set text at school was 'Lord of The Flies'

So what are we getting into here?


You're going to have to clean up the head and get rid of any hair remaining. Here's half the head lying in the sink. You can see how I've singed off some of the hairs around the snout, chin and the eye. Also how big a pigs ear is. How come cartoon pigs always seem to have small ears?


OK This is were it gets grisly. The inside of the head. That's the tongue I'm pointing at there. I was going to cook this separately so took it out as you can see in the next picture.

Tongue removed and I'm pointing to where the brains where. Keep those for a snack whilst the head is cooking.** Notice above my finger. That's about the thickest point of the skull, around an inch. You'd need to be able to hack through that. Also notice there's a good bit of meat on the top of the head and around the lower jaw.


The back of the head. Once again you can see that there's a good bit of meat on the cheek below where my thumb is.

If you've not been put off by the pictures. Let's press on.
Besides the pigs head I'd been a bit half arsed about getting the rest of the ingredients together that Mr Henderson calls for:

• A dollop of duck fat
• 8 shallots, peeled and left whole
• 8 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
• A glass of brandy
• 1 bundle of joy - thyme, parsley and a little rosemary
• ½ bottle of white wine
• Chicken stock
• A healthy spoonful of Dijon mustard
• 1 bunch of watercress, trimmed, or other greens
• Sea salt and black pepper

I didn't have any Duck fat, Shallots, Fresh Thyme, Parsley and Rosemary, Brandy, Proper Chicken Stock, Water cress/Greens, or Sea Salt.
So what.
Part of the art of cooking is substitution. As the Shallots (roughly chopped onions in my case) and garlic, have only got to sweat a bit. Olive oil did fine. The bundle of fresh herbs was replaced by dried; Two teaspoons each of Thyme and Parsley with one of Rosemary. Brandy I just left out. If I've got brandy in the house I'll probably be drinking it. I didn't have any Brandy in the house, so I didn't drink any, or add any to the recipe. Instead of Proper Chicken stock I used a couple of Oxo cubes. They work fine for most things. Water cress I like, but it's basically an accompaniment so I just missed that bit out. I did have Grainy mustard, but forgot to add it to the juice. Ah well, next time. I didn't add any salt as I find that Oxo cubes have enough salt in them for any recipe, but that's just me. I'm not big on salt in my food.

I found that the whole head would fit in my roasting pan, which is 6cm x 33cm x 24cm The pan could maybe have been a little deeper. Ah well. I didn't have to use 'The Big Giant Pan' (TBGP) The whole thing ends up looking like this:


Which is a fair approximation of an "Alligator in a Swamp" as Mr Henderson describes it. Notice the tinfoil on the ear to prevent it burning. I didn't have any Greaseproof paper, so I covered the whole lot in more tinfoil, which I removed for the last half hour of cooking.

3 Hours later and I've got this:


Where the skin is submerged it's cooked to a wonderful tasty softness, where the skin is out of the cooking juice, like the bit in the picture that the foil has stuck to, you get some good crackling. Not rock hard, but enough crispness that it's enjoyable to eat and makes a nice difference in texture.

There's some good eating on a pigs head.


This is starting to hack the cooked head up for eating. You can see that there's quite a bit of meat on it, especially on the lower jaw. The de-meated bone of the lower jaw is visible in the serving dish at the top of the picture.

Being a bloke I had 'just meat' and see nothing wrong with doing that. Parts of the head have got a goodly bit of meat on and it's easier to carve those bits off, or just pull the meat off. As this method of cooking makes for falling off the bone flesh. There is quite a bit of fat under the skin and this might put some people off, don't let it. That's some of the best bit about eating pork.

Would I do it again?
That's really the big test of a recipe. The answers yes. It tastes fucking lush. Rich, fatty and full of Pork flavour. With soft tasty skin and the bonus of crackling. It's a cheap meal, the pigs head cost me £2 at the market and this recipe only uses half of it.*** It is a faff though. What with shaving and singeing the head and having such a large item in my tiny kitchen. If you're by yourself and the sort of person who's happy with 'just meat' as a meal. Half a pigs head will leave you feeling nicely stuffed. If you've got a partner, add the greens and maybe some other vege' and you've got a great meal for two people. As long as you're both willing to be a little bit adventurous with your food. Because as I mentioned earlier, if you're a bit squeamish, preparing the head might be out of your comfort zone. I know people who definitely wouldn't eat it, even if it was cooked for them. If you're going to cook it. Make sure the person you're cooking it for doesn't mind you presenting a pigs head on the table.

*Comité de salut public = The Committee of Public Safety. The people responsible for a lot of beheadings during the French Revolution

**Pig Brains is another post.

***What I did with the other half is also another post.