traditional polish head cheese

2 ham hocks
2 trotters, split down the middle
2 thick-cut pork chops
1 bulb garlic
1 onion, diced
2 tbsp salt
10 laurel leaves
any desired flavors such as pepper flakes, herbs etc.


it's a process that takes a few hours, but with a little investment of time (click here for the entire method) you can take this:



and turn it into this:



and it really, really tastes great. the gals at the office might be afraid when they see it at the pot-luck:



but maybe they will try it and discover something good.

"Head Cheese " ?? Something lost in translation but the term implies made from the head of a pig ! I've done that .Taking parts of the head as you desire ,skin, jowls, etc and other parts of the pig as you wish. Losts of hard work but well worth the effort. Served on a piece of homemade dark bread it's wonderfull !!

What you have will taste delicious too .Are the hocks smoked ? That would add a nice flavor.The hocks and trotters add the gelatin that holds it together of course.

yep yep - heads aren't all that available in general, so the thick-cut pork chops, trotters, hocks and shanks are of course being used as subtitute.

i made this stuff a year or so ago, and it was very good as advertised. not quite the smokey flavour i was hoping for with the hocks and shanks, but i will see if my smokehouse and i can change that next time.

I have to ask. What are trotters?

Trotters are what the pig trots on -- feet !

Thanks mete I always called them pigs feet. Anyway the head cheese looks great.

In the UK, we'd call it a version of brawn which is made from pig's head and maybe trotters..... luverly!

As has been said, the translation leaves something to be desired!

This looks great, but I'm curious how you would do it with a real pig's head. They are not hard to come by in South Texas. Do you include the brain, eyes, etc.? Obviously the lips, cheeks, jowls, etc. This is a serious quesion.

my understAnding is that the whole thing goes in. keep in mind that after the boiling, then "garbage" is removed, (bones, etc) and only the meat is left behind. i suppose it is possible that the head is skinned and eyes removed, but i don't know for sure.

My grand father would boil the whole head till it fell apart. All the trash, (bones skin ect) was removed. Then the sesonings were added and boiled some more. Poor into pans to cool. The brains worked as the jelling agent.

Today we basicly use ham hocks and the trim from cleaning a hog and the jelling agent is jello jelatin. This is how it is sold to the general public here. I thing this was brought to us by the germans along with sausage making but not sure.

My father liked it and my mother occasionally made real head cheese for him. She was able, in those days, to buy half a pig head and then she'd boil the crap out of it and discard the bones and gristle and teeth. The jellying is due to the collagen, not the brains. It's the same stuff that goes into Jello.

Head cheese is sort of an aspic and as a kid I didn't like it.

I suspect that pig head is hard to find thee days because of the possibility of prions in the brain - not too many folk eat calf brains anymore for that reason.

The faux head cheese recipe of the OP sounds very good - might try it.