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The pig’s head is a versatile and tasty part of pork, containing fleshy muscle tissue, skin, fat, and offal. It can be used in dishes like pork cheese, headcheese, sausage, scrapple, and broth, and can also be grilled or used as a condiment.
The pig’s head contains a large amount of fleshy muscle tissue, skin and fat, and other offal, which is simply anything that isn’t meat but is still edible. Traditionally, the pig’s head was a poor man’s meat as other cuts such as rump, ribs and shoulder were more desirable. Even so, the meat from the head is tasty and can be used in many different dishes, just like any other cut of meat, but it’s also used to make specialty dishes like pork cheese.
Headcheese is made from almost the whole pig’s head. All parts are stewed until extremely tender, allowing the natural gelatin and fats to bind the meats into a gelatinous substance. While it doesn’t actually contain a cheese, the result of stewing the skin, meat, and other substances in the pig’s head is a meaty spread loaf. At room temperature, it is soft and pliable, just like cheese. It has a rich, intense flavor and is often served as an appetizer with crackers or crusty bread.
The whole pig’s head is commonly used in sausage making. Several meaty and tasty areas of the head are good enough for this purpose. These can be flavored with a variety of spice combinations – hot, sweet or mild – and formed into meshes or patties.
Scrapple, or liver mush, also uses most of the pig’s head. The meats, fats and skin of the head are ground together to obtain a fine texture. This is mixed with cornmeal and shaped into a loaf which is fried or baked. The loaf is usually served with breakfast foods such as eggs, toast, and hash browns, and in the southern United States, grits.
Because pork head contains a rich combination of fats and meats, it is often stewed to create a broth. This broth can be used in a variety of dishes, from soups and stews, to noodles, casseroles, and other meat dishes. The pig’s head is the traditional base – both the meat and the stock – for Brunswick Stew.
Like any other meaty area of an animal, the head can be grilled. To do this, the head is usually cut in two and the muzzle and ears are removed. The seasonings or marinades are left to the personal preferences of the chef and the result is a very rich dish. The flesh contained in the head can be cut out and used like flesh from any other area of the body. Broiled, roasted, boiled, fried or used as a condiment, it’s a versatile part of pork. The cheeks, in particular, are particularly tasty and generally quite tender.
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