Head cheese
From Free net encyclopedia
- This article is about the food. For the Transformers character, please see Brawn (Transformers). For the secretion of mammalian genitals, please see Smegma.
Head cheese (AmE) is in fact not a cheese, but rather a terrine of meat from the head of a calf or pig (sometimes a sheep or cow) that would not otherwise be considered appealing. It may also include meat from the feet and heart. It is usually eaten cold or at room temperature as a luncheon meat.
Historically the cleaned (all organs removed) head was simmered to produce a gelatin (which would form from the bone marrow) containing any incidental meat which came off the head. The more modern method involves adding gelatin to meat, which is then cooked in a mold.
Varieties
Various versions exist around the world:
- United Kingdom
- In England, head cheese is referred to as brawn, in Scotland as "Potted Head"
- France
- Referred to as fromage de tête, which translates as "cheese of the head".
- Louisiana, United States
- The highly seasoned "Hog's Head Cheese" is very popular as a cold cut or appetizer. It is also something of a staple of soul food, and may also be known as "souse meat" or simply "souse".
- Croatia
- A rather strongly seasoned version of this meal is called tlačenica or švargla (the latter being a corrupted loan-word from German).
- Germany
- Variations of the Croatian dish are known as Sülze.
- Genoa, Italy
- A similar preparation goes by the monicker testa in cassetta, literally 'head in a box'.
- Latin America
- Head cheese is very popular and is usually referred to as "Queso de Cabeza".
Trivia
This dish may have been the inspiration for William Heath Robinson's macabre drawing Remarkable case of absence of mind in a Dutch restaurant (1912), in which a diner, distracted by his newspaper, mistakes his sleeping neighbour's bald head for an Edam cheese and cuts a slice from it.
'Headcheese' was originally the name for the film and the character 'Leatherface' in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but was changed at the last minute because the writers and director thought it was a ridiculous and un-scary name.
"Head Cheese" was the name of a novelty tag-team wrestling in the WWE. It consisted of Steve Blackman and Al Snow.