A pig's head is a product that not every housewife will undertake to cook. Some are intimidated by the need for cutting skills, while others are intimidating in appearance. However, if you look closely, you can find many advantages in such a purchase. The cost on the market, compared to other parts, is quite low. Meals from the head are delicious and nutritious. It remains only to study the recipes that have been tried by cooks more than once.

A pork head is a commodity that does not sit on the market for a long time. The low price and the ability to prepare several delicious dishes attracts knowledgeable buyers.

It is better to make a purchase in the market in the morning. After studying a few simple rules and using them in practice, choosing a quality product will not be difficult.

Attention! In the old days, the head of a pig was served in every tavern and dishes from it were of high value.

Attention! Whole pork head goes bad quickly. To prevent such a nuisance from happening, you need to cut it up immediately after purchase.

How to cut

Delicious dishes are obtained when the head is properly cut. Therefore, you need to be patient and do the work in accordance with the following points:

• Thoroughly scrape off the debris from the ears and other areas.
• A well-sharpened knife with a strong blade is used to separate the ears. Do this as close to the main body as possible.
• Start separating the cheek. The meat along with the skin, using a large knife, is cut in the direction from the top of the head to the patch. At this point, you should be very careful and try not to hurt the eye socket. The dark goo that fills the organ of vision, if it gets on the separated piece, will ruin its appearance.
• The frontal part is cut off. Do this with a knife at point-blank range.
• The chin is treated. Take out the tongue.
• Using a sharp ax or cleaver, you need to chop the skull, after which the head is divided into 2 parts.

• The lower and upper jaws are separated by passing a knife along the connecting ligament.
• A patch is cut off.
• They begin to separate the jaws.

The remaining bones with meat are sent for storage and used later for cooking broths. Finish cutting by removing the eyes and brain. The first are sent to feed the animals. A head cut according to all the rules is soaked in cold water for at least 6 hours.

Advice. If you are not sure of the success of self-cutting, it is better to ask for a similar service from professional deboners in the market. The head will be cut in minutes.

Delicious saltison

Saltison or brawn, as the Germans call it, is a dish made from boiled parts of a pig's head. It is performed in 2 versions:

• in the pork stomach;
• pressed in cling film or sleeve.

The first cooking method is considered classic, but it takes more time. The pressed version is simpler (you don't have to mess with your stomach), but no less tasty. For saltison, you need to take the following products:

• pork head;
• the muscular wall of the pig's stomach;
• head of garlic;
• carrot;
• parsley root, spices.

In addition to the head, pieces of liver, tongue, pork pulp are added to the brawn. In the presence of all the necessary products, the first step is to process the stomach. The digestive organ is thoroughly washed, excess fat and mucus from the surface is scraped off, and salt is sprinkled. In this form, the stomach is left for 10-12 hours. Then washed again in several waters.

Saltison is prepared like this:

1. The cut head fits into a suitable sized pot. If you plan to add the tongue and liver, they are boiled separately.
2. Boiled under a lid for 3-4 hours.
3. Onions and roots are added one hour before the burner is turned off. For half an hour - salt and spices.
4. The head is removed from the broth. The meat is cut, deboned.
5. Crushed garlic and a little broth are added.
6. Fill in a soaked scar or polyethylene mold.
7. Sew up the holes and cook in broth for another 2-3 hours.
8. They are taken out and placed under a press in a cool place for a couple of days.
9. The delicacy is served with mustard or horseradish.

Jelly and roll

The pork head is great for making jelly. Prepare it as follows:

1. The chopped head is cooked over low heat for about 5 hours.
2. The meat is taken out, crushed, and pitted.
3. Pieces of pulp are scattered on glass or enamel trays and poured over with salted broth.
4. Exposed to the cold.

Jelly is served with mustard mixed with vinegar or horseradish with beets. In Belarus, the recipe for a roll is widespread, the basis of which is a pork head.

They make the dish like this:

1. The head is not cut as usual. First, the skin is removed from it in a layer.
2. Everything else that is suitable for food is cut and boiled in salt water with bay leaves for 3 hours.
3. The pulp is chopped, sprinkled with chopped onions, garlic, spices. Spread on the skin and roll up. Tied up with thread or twine.
4. The roll is boiled for another 2 hours in broth. Take out. Serve cold.
5. This roll goes great as an appetizer.

All of the listed dishes, for the preparation of which a pork head is suitable, look very appetizing even in the photo. It's easy to cook them. The main thing is to get used to and properly cut the product.

Selz: video

A pig's head is rarely seen as a serious culinary product. It is customary to cook jellied meat from it, and a good aspic is obtained from the tongue. But that is not all. It turns out that you can make a very tasty pressed meat from a pork head.

All ingenious is simple

Recently, the daily menu of any family is increasingly "attacked" by sausages. They have become a real attribute of a quick breakfast or light dinner. This significantly reduces the cooking time, but does not provide the enjoyment that comes with eating homemade foods. Moreover, this is not so difficult to do. Take a pig's head, for example. Not only jelly can be prepared from it, but also something interesting. There is a great recipe that makes it easy to make unusual pressed meat from a pork head. This will require a pork head, garlic, onions, ground peppers, carrots, spices and water.

You need to cook as follows:

1. Wash the pork head, cut it in half lengthwise and place in a wide saucepan.
2. Pour the product with water and immediately cook for 4 hours.
3. After that, remove both halves from the pan, lay them out on the table and completely free them from bones.
4. Then spread cheesecloth on the table, put one piece on it, skin side down and spice it generously.
5. Chop onion, carrot and garlic at random. Mix the products and spread the resulting mass on top of the first piece of head.
6. Cover the entire structure with a second piece and wrap the resulting roll very tightly in cheesecloth.
7. Set the oppression on top and leave the product in this position for one day.

Pressed pork head meat prepared in this way turns out to be very tasty, juicy and aromatic.

A familiar product

There are many dishes in cooking that are prepared in this way. Take brawn, for example. By and large, it is the same pressed meat from a pork head, decorated in the form of a sausage. To prepare it at home, you will need: 1 pork head, 7 liters of water, 3 onions, 1 kilogram of lump pork, salt, 1 carrot, parsley root, spices, 2 bay leaves, herbs (parsley, dill) and lemon zest (for lovers ).

Brawn is prepared quite simply:

1. Boil a piece of pork and the head together with the roots for 5 hours. Throw bay leaf and salt into a saucepan half an hour before the end of cooking.
2. Spread the finished product on a cutting table, free it from the existing bones and cut everything into small pieces.
3. Now the chopped meat must be boiled again together with onions and lemon zest. This will take approximately 1 hour.
4. Combine the boiled pieces with the rest of the ingredients and mix well. After that, put everything on cheesecloth, twist it tightly into a roll, tie it with twine, put it under arbitrary oppression and send it to the refrigerator for several hours.

Serve the prepared pressed meat from the pork head on the table after cutting into pieces and sprinkling with plenty of herbs.

To prepare pressed meat, you can use not only pork heads, but also legs. For variety, you can also add any poultry meat. For the standard pork option, you need the following ingredients:

• 2.5 kilograms of pork legs;
• 2 carrots;
• 1 potato;
• 3 bay leaves;
• 5 sprigs of cloves;
• a tablespoon of peppercorns;
• 2 onions;
• 5 cloves of garlic;
• salt;
• a few stalks of dill;
• 2 tablespoons of powdered gelatin;
• 1 tablespoon honey
• a couple of juniper twigs and 10 berries of this plant.

The work starts with the most important thing:

1. rinse, clean and dry with a napkin.
2. Then grease them with honey and let sit for 15 minutes.
3. Fold the legs tightly into a saucepan, add water and slowly bring to a boil.
4. Skim off the foam from the broth, and then add the chopped vegetables and the rest of the ingredients. In this composition, cook the legs for at least 3 hours.
5. After that, remove the skin from the legs and cut off the meat.
6. Cover the prepared form with pieces of leather.
7. Grind the meat, mix with gelatin and put on top of the skin in a mold. Make several of these layers. Cover everything from above with leather.
8. Close the form, place a load on it and leave it in this position for a whole day.

The result is a very tasty pressed meat, which is well known in Norwegian cuisine. Scandinavians eat it with toast or special tortillas, sprinkled with sour cream sauce with dill. But everyone can decide for himself what to eat with such yummy.

Household appliances

Appliances are increasingly coming to help housewives in the kitchen. Designers are developing new devices that can make work in the kitchen easier. One of these mechanisms is the ham maker. It makes cooking much easier. A special recipe has been developed for each dish. Pressed meat, for example, is very convenient to do with this device. You don't have to take your head. For cooking, you can use the following ingredients: carrots, spices, sweet pepper and 2 eggs.

Everything is prepared in two steps:

1. Cut the meat, carrots and peppers into pieces, stir and set aside for a while (2 hours), so that the food is slightly marinated.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix again.
3. Line the ham maker with foil and put the prepared mixture in it. Cover the device and place in a deep frying pan. Poke holes in the marked holes, and pour a glass of ordinary water into the pan. Put the structure in the oven for 1.5 hours.

After cooling, the finished product can be removed from the device and safely served on the table. This aromatic meat product can be placed on bread as a sandwich or served on a plate with a vegetable side dish.

Rich choice

Any housewife can decide for herself how to make pressed meat. It all depends on the availability of food and accessories in the kitchen. If there is no standard ham maker at hand, then the meat can always be cooked in ordinary cling film. It is better to take a simpler recipe. For this option, the following set of products is suitable: 1.2 kilograms of pork, a glass of water, spices, 3 tablespoons of gelatin, salt, a little garlic and onions (if desired).

The dish is prepared in the usual way:

1. Cut the meat into large pieces and place in a saucepan. Then fill it with water and put it on fire. Add salt, onion and pepper during cooking.
2. At this time, dilute the gelatin with cold water and set aside to swell.
3. Remove the cooked meat from the hot broth into a separate plate and let it cool. Then carefully disassemble each piece into the fibers. Add chopped garlic to the meat.
4. Dilute the finished gelatin with a little hot broth.
5. Moisten a baking dish with water and line the inside with foil.
6. Pour a little gelatin on the bottom, and put some of the meat with garlic on top. Then lay out in the same order until all the products run out. There must be gelatin on top.
7. Wrap the resulting mixture with the edges of the film, and put a load on top. Put this structure in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours.

Serve meat on the table sprinkled with plenty of herbs.

Step 1: We cut the pork head.

I thought for a long time what to cook such a delicious pork head and decided that we would have a meatloaf for dinner. At the same time, in this recipe, I will teach you how to properly cut a pork head. So, we buy a fresh head of a young pig at the bazaar. Check carefully that it is free of any hair or stubble. But if you do notice the presence of hair, then it can be easily removed with a disposable razor (unusual but effective). Now we have to do the most difficult thing - to wash the pig's head. To do this, we stock up with an iron brush and thoroughly clean our head with it. Pay special attention to the heel and ears. As a result, the head, in the literal sense, should shine with cleanliness.
Now let's get down to an equally difficult thing - butchering the head. To do this, we take a sharp knife and begin to cut meat with fat from the skull. Then we cut off the tongue, clean it and cut off everything unnecessary from it.
Then we cut off the ears from the head, and at the same time we cut off as much fat as possible, and then close the holes from the eyes with a piece of meat. In the part where the neck was, we make small incisions.

Step 2: Cooking the pork head.

We put to preheat the oven to temperature 180 degrees... Rub the chopped head well with salt, pepper and all dry herbs. We peel the garlic from the husk, and then we pass it through the garlic and rub the head with it.
Then we carefully wrap it in a roll and tie it tightly with thread. Put sprigs of rosemary (fresh) under the thread.
Put the cut pieces of fat and a few sprigs of rosemary in a baking dish. Lay the roll on top and cover the form with foil. And we send to bake in the oven 2-3 hours... In this case, it is necessary to periodically open the foil and pour fat on the roll, and then cover it back. If you are wondering why do we bake for so long? The fact is that in this case our task is to melt as much fat as possible from the roll. Cool the finished roll at room temperature. Then we transfer it to a plate and send it to the refrigerator. for at least 5 hours.

Step 3: Serve the pork head meatloaf.

Free the finished roll from the threads and cut into portioned pieces, which we then beautifully transfer to a serving dish and decorate with green leaves. Bon Appetit!

In this case, we have prepared a cold pork head appetizer. But it can also be served hot, for example, by preparing young boiled potatoes as a side dish.

Of course, the pork head can be baked whole, and thus served on the table. To do this, you just need to wash your hair well, rub it with spices and send it to the oven for a couple of hours. In this case, you can put a frying pan with water under a baking sheet with meat so that the head does not dry out.

If you have an electric oven, then I advise you to shove the roll into the baking sleeve and thus prepare a snack.

Choosing fresh meat in the markets, many deliberately bypass counters selling pork heads. At the same time, culinary connoisseurs, on the contrary, try to buy a pork head, because this is a real delicacy! Skillfully, you can cook many delicious dishes from it, while their cost will be much cheaper than from ordinary meat. Now we will consider the simplest options that any housewife who knows how to cook in the slightest degree is capable of.

Aspic

The simplest and incredibly tasty and versatile dish immediately comes to mind - jellied meat, popularly called jelly. Cooking begins with the fact that the head is well washed, divided into a number of parts, many, by the way, if there is a suitable container, put it whole, fill it with water and boil it. The pork head should boil well, so this will take about five hours from the moment of boiling, if you cook on a regular stove, then a little less.

The scale that will form is removed. The cooked meat will separate well from the bones. They remove everything directly with their hands in one container, including the tongue, ears, brain, in this case there is no time to talk about disgust, because this is the most delicious in the head, even in many expensive restaurants dishes made from these "elements" are considered the most expensive! After the bones are thrown away, the meat is disassembled into small fiber pieces and dumped into one basin. Strained broth is added to them, in which the meat was cooked, brought to a boil. If there is practically no liquid, you need to add quite a bit of fresh boiling water. Season with salt, add pepper, bay leaf and almost before boiling put a little chopped garlic or onions.

The boiled mass is evenly packaged in portioned containers or ordinary cups, taking the jellied meat to a cool place, for example, on the veranda. After cooling, the jelly is ready, it remains only to remove the fat that has surfaced on the surface and serve it to the table.

Homemade brawn

Homemade brawn is very tasty, which, like jellied meat, is prepared from pork head meat that has already been cooked and selected from the bones. In this case, it is not torn into fibers, but crushed into very small pieces with a knife. Combine with a small amount of garlic, salt, pepper, spices. All additional ingredients are used exclusively to your taste, you can add something else or, conversely, not put it.

After stirring, the meat mass is laid out in a bag and sent to a cool place, it would be good under a small press to harden. The result should be a kind of meat briquette, which will only have to be cut before serving.

Sausage

Pork head makes a delicious homemade sausage. Its preparation, like the previous dishes, will take very little time, except for boiling the head itself. The meat separated from the bone is passed through a meat grinder, along with pieces of garlic. The resulting minced meat is pepper, salted, you can add spices. Now, if you have tools for making homemade sausage, put everything there. If not, then the minced meat is simply spread in small portions in bags and shaped into small sausages that we usually buy in the store.

Knowing how tasty and “exotic” the “ingredients” of a pork head are, you can use them separately! So, for example, fried cheeks, boiled and fried pork ears, baked pork tongue will turn out to be very tasty. Even the brain is considered the perfect ingredient for some dishes! The main thing is to rinse it all well before starting cooking, clean it if necessary, and after boiling it, be especially careful so that small bones do not get into the dish, which, in principle, can be noticed when chopping ordinary meat, and not just a pork head!

In addition, the meat taken from the pork head is perfect for baking, making vegetable rolls and even cutlets. If a banquet is being prepared for a large number of people, then the head can simply be boiled in spices and served as an independent dish under some appropriate sauce! Try to cook anything you like and you will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly such dishes go away!

Home-cooked pressed meat is a great substitute for sausage. It is used as a cold snack. With pressed meat, you can make a hearty breakfast sandwich or serve it on a festive table. Guests will appreciate the taste of this dish. The main ingredients are relatively cheap, but it turns out, practically, a delicacy. Try it!

You will need:

Half a pork head;

1 large chicken leg;

1 head of onion;

A few peas of black pepper;

3-4 cloves of garlic;

Bay leaf;

Large saucepan;

A piece of gauze 30 * 30cm.

Preparation:

1. Buy half a pork head at the market or store. It can be fresh or frozen. Ask to be cut into 3-5 pieces. Don't forget to buy one large chicken leg.

2. Soak the pork head pieces in cold water. To do this, put them in a saucepan, fill with water, leave for 2-3 hours. Then drain the water, rinse the pieces of meat under running cold water.

3. Put pieces of pork head, chicken leg into a saucepan. Fill everything with water so that it completely covers the contents of the pan. Cover the saucepan with a lid and place over high heat.

4. Reduce heat as soon as the contents of the saucepan have come to a boil. Put in it the peeled onion (whole), a few peas of black pepper, bay leaf. Simmer the pork head over low heat until the meat begins to easily separate from the bones. During the cooking process, do not forget to salt the broth to taste.

5. Once the pork head is cooked, turn off the heat. Wait until the contents of the pot have cooled to room temperature.

6. Place the cheesecloth in a deep cup so that the ends hang over the edges of the cup.

7. On a wide, flat plate, gently remove one piece of boiled pork head. Separate the fat with meat from the bones, put them in a deep cup on cheesecloth. Disassemble the entire contents of the pan in this way. To prevent the pressed meat from falling apart when cutting, first put large pieces of bacon on the cheesecloth with the skin down (to the cheesecloth). Put pieces of pork and chicken meat, boneless on the lard. Put the pieces of bacon on top again, only now with the skin facing up. When spreading the meat and lard, sprinkle them with garlic grated on a fine grater.

8. Gather the loose ends of the gauze together, twist them several times. You will get a tight knot of gauze with meat inside. Place the meat bundle in the bowl so that the twisted ends of the gauze are at the bottom. Put a cutting board on top of the meat, place a load on it (a heavy saucepan, a jar of water, etc.). Leave the meat under pressure for 5-6 hours to harden.

9. Free the meat from the cheesecloth, cut into neat slices, serve.

Bon Appetit!