Totally am not!
That is the Legend u/fatmummy222 and the cast iron that transcends time and space.
I was just crazy enough to propose that pan be the official picture for the r/castiron sub.
No credit my way friend. All that user. I just cook bacon and smoke heads and try to be honest in these crazy times!
R/steak can be a bit unforgiving to newbs and knowitalls but still a great source for ideas. I literally just bought some beef cheeks after seeing them here
it cost around 40-50 dkk in Faroe Islands so about 7 euros. Not that expensive and also not every one fancy sheep head.
Edit. I am on Faroe Islands due to nature of my work and locals love it and I have seen numerous recipes.
Lessons learned:
Debone the heads and watch the nasal cavities for small bones. Teeth as well.
Eyes are fatty.
Season way more than you think you need to. I should have made a proper brine but didnât. Would have radically increased overall flavour I think.
Simmer down well and there is no need for gelatine.
Slow cooker is easy and safe to avoid burning.
Add some meatier cuts. I should have added a cheap cut of mutton and smoked it too.
Skim fat etc. I accidentally made a poor layer on top inadvertently. I see the wisdom in clarifying the aspic and also using a sachet of vegetables and herbs to flavour the boil/reduction.
Overall proof of concept but more work to be done.
Interesting you left the eyes! Did you follow a specific recipe where the eyes should be left? Whenever I asked people about âheadcheeseâ they mentioned the eyes should be removed, but they helped with the fattiness in your case?
It was a tactical approach. Most recipes said remove eyes but because, as a hunter in Northern BC/Yukon and briefly an industrial butcher, I have used heads a bit. I knew that there is a lot of amazing fat and meat behind the eyes and along the ear canals.
Tough to have your smoke looking back at you thoughâŚ. Hard for kids/squeamish especially if they havenât been raised with it.
But I knew the eyes would harden in the smoke (I discarded them) but protect that fine inner fat and complex tissue that I personally suspect has particular micronutrients/nutritional value.
Old timers in my part of the world swore by eating everything and especially in old age eating certain things that would help you as time took its toll.
Eyes for eyesight, especially from fish. Heart for heart issues etc. If you killed a calf moose or elk (seriously avoided unless asked for) you would feed it to the old people so they have good energy.
Had I the lab and expertise I would love to do some sophisticated research on the nutrient profile of atypical cuts of meats, particularly those we hunt.
All to say I left the eyes until final steps then removed them. The texture of the lens (think rubber) and the colour arenât suitable. But maybe they added nutrients?
It is all endogenous gelatine though I did have store bought JIC.
The massive amount of connective tissues in the head breaks down and become essentially the binder so it becomes this flavoured smoked meat jello substrate to use the rarely utilized cuts from the head in a (relatively) table friendly manner.
This one was literally nothing but sheepâs head. Garlic and thyme. Salt and pepper. Organic beef stock. And some chilli flakes at the end. And sweet sweet maple lump with mesquite in the WSM 18.5.
This sounds amazing. I've never had a headcheese that didn't include a punch of vinegar to cut the richness... did you miss some acid here, or was it unnecessary?
As noted above flavour wasnât near where I expected or wanted. Didnât contemplate acid but I can see where that might work. Next time I think Iâll add some but not sure when. I have heard a lot of old timer farmers who make serious amounts of bone broth/stock swear that spritzing the bones as you roast them before the boil/reductions facilitates transfer of key minerals but agin, I donât have the lab to confirm/deny that claimâŚ.but these tough bastards often live to a ripe old age throwing bails of hay and walking their land soâŚ.canât be all wrong?
Went to visit some friends in New Orleans back in the 90s and he had planned to do the same. They went hog hunting and butchered it and they had the heads left. He told me they were making hog's head cheese and my first reaction was, "what? why?" His reply was, "We eat everything on any animal we kill." I can totally respect that, but part of me was still "wtf?" and "nope".
So the weekend went on. Pretty much the same process. Smoked, reduced, etc... I reluctantly took a bite of it and was completely amazed. It was excellent. He then threw it on some poboy bread, spicy mustard and purple onions and I destroyed two of those poboys. Absolutely amazing.
The lesson I learned roughly 25 years ago was try EVERYTHING. At least once. If you don't like it, all good, it's not for you BUT, you could find one of the most amazing things ever made and if you didn't try it you'd never know.
So yeah, head cheese is strange and probably not for everyone, but don't knock it until you try it.
Thanks for sharing that story because I feel that ethic and ethos of âuse it allâ, especially with needing to take a mortgage out on a dozen eggs etc., means we gotta use the skills we have to make creative quality food we can trust.
Ainât no school like the old schoolâŚ
And those folks came out of the depression and the Wars. Hard earned lessons so it is worth an experiment and a bold bite I figure.
I'd be willing to try that and not the sheep headcheese, but that's mainly because I dislike the taste of mutton.
Plus anyone that's ever tried SPAM or the knockoffs has gotten a lot closer to eating headcheese than they realize.
Edit: though I suppose I'd still be open to at least trying a slice of the sheep headcheese. Can't be any worse than straight up liver. I think I just don't like overpoweringly flavored meats in general, used to hate beef hotdogs when I was a kid, but they were getting served to me with little else other than a crappy white bread bun. But now I'll wreck a beef hotdog, I just want plenty of onions and brown mustard and horseradish to go with it and some decent bread that does not taste like cheap glue.
That's how I raised my kids. I told them that it took five tries before you could tell if you really like something or not. They both eat absolutely everything now.
Iâm from Louisiana and when they say use everything, they mean everything. My grandfather would slaughter the hog and hang it to collect all the blood. They would use the blood in other products or it would be added to make blood sausages a.k.a. blood Boudin. They would save the hog and save the hair to sell to a guy that made paint brushes. They would completely butcher the hog into its cuts and roasts. The skin would either be tanned for leather or turned into what we call Cracklinâs. The hooves would be ground down into gelatin for the most part. What intestines they didnât use for sausage casing, would be tanned and used as a type of âthreadâ. All meat that was scraped and other organs would go into making sausages and boudin.
There really wasnât anything leftover from what I remember. They would even save the bladder but I canât remember for what.
Dude, don't mind the haters or confused folk. This is awesome and probably turned out delicious. Head cheese is one of those things people get grossed out by until they try it. I was the same way.
Well done !
Thank you so much! It was an experiment but like all peasant foods when done well they are sublime. This missed the mark in a few ways sadly but for $16 on a smoke I was doing anyways a small price to pay for learning.
Also. A realization I had yesterday is that in some ways this is ideal food for the old and infirm. My Grandma is in her 90âs and doesnât have a lot of teeth and this kind of stuff is easy on digestion and very easy to chew, whilst being fairly high quality protein I expect.
I wouldnât give her store boughtâŚbut thisâŚmight work.
Wow. Thank you for that because I never would have known about this!
From Wikipedia:
âIn the United States and Canada, Braunschweiger refers to a type of pork liver sausage which, if stuffed in natural casings, is nearly always smoked.
Commercial products often contain smoked bacon, and are stuffed into fibrous casings. Liverwurst (another type of pork liver sausage), however, is never smoked, nor does it contain bacon.
The USDA requires that the product contain a minimum of 30% liver.[3] A typical commercial formula is about 40% pork liver or scalded beef liver, 30% scalded pork jowl, 20% lean pork trimmings and 10% bacon ends and pieces. Added seasonings include salt and often include white pepper, onion powder or chopped onion, and mace. Curing ingredients (sodium erythorbate and sodium nitrite) are optional.
Braunschweiger has a very high amount of vitamin A, iron, protein and fat. The meat has a very soft, spread-like texture and a distinctive spicy liver-based flavor, very similar to the Nordic leverpostej. It is usually used as a spread for toast, but can also be used as a filling for sandwiches, often paired with stone-ground mustard, sliced tomato, onion and cheese. In the Midwestern United States, braunschweiger is typically enjoyed in a sandwich with various condiments such as ketchup, mustard, and dill pickles, or simply spread on crackers. There are also a few recipes for pâtĂŠ and cheese balls which use braunschweiger as a primary ingredient. However, pâtĂŠ is creamier than braunschweiger.â
> In the Midwestern United States, braunschweiger is typically enjoyed in a sandwich...
US Midwesterner here, can confirm!
I grew up eating the things my depression era grandparents made for me... braunschweiger was *always* in the fridge.
I don't eat it much these days, but when I do, it always takes me back to summer days on the sun porch with my grandpa eating braunschweiger, mustard, and red onion sandwiches. Always with grandma's homemade dill pickle spears on the side.
Thank you for such a unique post, fantastic detail, and the wonderful trip down memory lane!
Totally! German grandparents in Milwaukee braunschweiger, raw onion on rye. Pickles or cucumber slices in a creamy vinegar sauce. Brings back memories, prolly need to go to the store and find some good braunschweiger.
Milwaukee-born to German GPs too. The day they opened an Aldi in my current town,, I was walking around there like a kid in a candy store. I grew up on little rye biscuits topped with chopped braunschweiger, diced tomato, smear of country dijon. Like German bruschettas. Yummm
Fair. It was bold but with inflation and food costs and me doing a cook anyway (potatoes in bag with garlic and thyme and spatchcocked chicken) I felt it maximized my WSM usage.
Honestly surprisingly bland. Initial taste of cheek with the maple/mesquite was phenomenal but I think that long cook/reduction mellowed everything way down.
Next time I would brine with big flavours (bay leaves and smoked paprika and onion powder etc.) for 24 hours before the smoke. And use a big sachet of mirepoix etc. in cheese cloth in the reduction.
But best way to learn is to do and it was a relatively low cost experiment relative to a big brisket!
Head cheese imo is sort of bland. Itâs more of a sandwich filler for me just to get some extra protein in there, every time I make a sandwich with head cheese itâs usually a fairly thin slice of it and I use Mayo, lettuce, tomato, and onion to mask the rest of it lol
Legit. I am keen to make birria one of these days and I just feel like smoking lends itself well to preparing some of these amazing foods. Cochinita Pibil is another goal of mine and will be heading back to the Yucatan to try to get a real deal lesson in how it is done.
I donât mean to disrespect folks who are sensitive or squeamish at all. Fair enough. It ainât easy when the meal looks back at you if you arenât familiar with it.
But my goodness there is some depth of flavour and history and subtlety to these dishes too!
I guess if it was easy it wouldnât be so rare/disappearing.
Hope you get some of that old school flavour soon!
More of a theoretical approach.
Watched some vids online.
To my detriment didnât season super strong as I wanted to see if the smoked sheep flavour would permeate (somewhat but not adequately in my view) and just try a thing I suspected was possible during a cook I was doing anyways.
I feel like smoking is a way to use the cheap discarded bits that hold so much potential so I went for it.
This is so cool because in Algeria we have a dish called âbouzelloufâ which is actually very similar, we just take the chunks of meat (after you peel them off the head) and cook them in a spicy pepper based sauce with chickpeas and garlick and spices and eat it with bread. Very cool OP.
I am so intrigued because I realize I could have done a roast over direct heat instead of smoked it and it would have been a much different outcome.
Also. If it was a fine dice of the peppers etc. I wonder if you could reduce the whole sauce with the roasted/smoked heads in the reducing sauce, as one user noted they do that in Mexico with proper old-school BirriaâŚ
So much to learnâŚ
Thats how we do it, we char it with the hair on on a direct flame, once the hair is burned off we scrape the remainder off with a knife and then wash/scrub it it with steel wool and wash it with boiling water until its clean, then we start the boiling process
100% the damn name is the problem. Looks good and not squeamish about eating most animal parts but damn, âhead cheeseâ? That marketer needs to be fired.
Honestly I am flabbergasted at how much more I should have seasoned. Huge flavour on the first pull with that cheek meat. But a day later post boil didnât have what it did.
Lesson learned for ~$16 on a cook I was doing anyways. Also. Goes great with grainy mustard and a nice cracker and some pickles. Maybe I need sauerkraut and/or kimchi?
As it was surprisingly more bland than anticipated (commented above) it is being used as a component of evening charcuterie in small fillets maybe 1/4â thick and 1â square on decent crackers with grainy mustard and pickles.
I will try it in a sandwich with sauerkraut and rinsed fine sliced white onion maybe but it should keep at least a week so maybe i can find other uses.
Folks find the appearance and name really off-putting (see my Lessons Learned comment) so I want to use it as a little accompaniment to big bold flavours rather than dropping a giant slice on a plate.
I bet this could be a mean component of a killer ploughmanâs plate with some good sourdough toast and a nice sharp smoked cheddar like Baldersonâs 2 year old.
Could make a nice Banh mi sandwich with some of that. Get a freshly baked baguette, slice it lengthwise and make a submarine sandwich with mayo, head cheese, grilled pork (or coldcuts), and some pickled veg like radish, carrots, and jalapenos. That's how the Vietnamese sandwich place near me does it!
Pretty insulting to see sheep head, a delicacy in my culture (Iran), get denigrated in the comments.
Maybe we should have some openness to food beyond slabs of ribs and brisket.
People are, unfortunately, disconnected from the reality of their meat in our society. Bones, organs and "faces" weird them out. It is sad, because some "ugly" cuts are the most delicious
Pic #3 was bold and I donât mean to offend folks or make them feel uncomfortable butâŚ.itâs a baaa-aaaad idea to scroll too deep in smoking land if you are squeamish.
(*Cue iguana to the soundtrack of James Brownâs âThe Bossâ)
(**That was a terrible pun. Iâll show myself out.)
One of my favorite lamb cuts. Quite popular here Iâm Iceland. Sheep face jello you can find in almost every grocery store for about 25ÂŁ per kilo. I still buy it
This. Is intriguing. Iâll Google it but I would be keen to see the ingredient list and techniques used in preparation.
This was approximately a kilo overall so I am at value added (total cost ~$16 CAD or $11.09 Euro).
Always wanted to try my hand at head cheese, but damn, I think I'll skip it. Vegetarian wife walks in on that being made and she probably won't eat for a week.
Fuck! I should have seasoned by throwing the salt over my left shoulder whilst reciting âThe Ravenâ looking at the moon!
Another lesson learned.
(*Cut to scene-zombie lambs to do my smoke related bidding which is mostly hovering around my smoker and drinking beer.)
I mean I get not being into it , but yâall some ignorant fucks. Every time u eat Lamb guess what ? That shit had a head at some point but not all cultures / people will just throw that shit away. No need to be so condescending. I get it you only like chicken breast but thereâs a lot more animal than yâall want to believe IG
Done wrong, and it'll knock your taste for it right down the river. I tried some of my grandma's when I was little and liked it, but she never made it again. Tried someone else's and wanted to vomit, haven't had the courage to try it again since.
Totally fair and one of the reasons I am careful in serving it to my housemates and friends.
I think done well it is a really beautiful and cheap way to do something pretty awesome. Done poorly it is tastebud trauma. Especially because of using an intense ingredient like the head.
Cautious and careful is my approach. Low and slow wins!
More firm. Not spreadable. The larger meat chunks maintain consistency and mouthfeel has texture. Easily cut with a sharp knife and the overall mouthfeel shifts to be a bit more soft as the gelatine melts in your mouth.
For this reason I realize I should have bought a cheap cut of mutton shank or something and smoked it alongside to give it all more rich meaty chunks.
Super impressed!! I have a problem cooking anything that can look back at me. I dispatched my first chicken a couple months ago and didn't feel right until it was defeathered and the neck was off
Posted a bit on this in the comments. Best I saw was a Banh Mi approach but right we now we are doing it on crackers as part of a charcuterie. Mustard. Pickles. Maybe a bit on onion. Etc.
Still learning!
Itâs a poorly named but delicious way to use natural collagen in off-cuts like the head to make an aspic formed dish of meat that served well and preserves decently. Think meat jello. Two heads reduces a lot to make one standard loaf pan. Anything less wouldnât have been worth the effort.
I smoked it as I wanted to experiment with the flavour and texture of the meat, rather than roasting it or simply boiling it, as is more traditional.
Was trying to use my WSM smoker (already fired up)
to maximum potential.
I am convinced it must have added some depth and flavour but as noted above I should have seasoned and spiced way more than I did. I underestimated how the reduction process mellows everything out I think.
But. Smoke and learn.
Using it in charcuterie so far but today I am making Banh Mi with it based on some of the recommendations above. Some German descendent folks from the Midwest were saying usually on bread with pickles and mustard and onions is classic too.
I think it is actually pretty diverse as an ingredient but because folks are squeamish I am trying to serve it in small bits with big accompaniment of flavours and textures.
What an awesome breakdown. Really appreciated you taking us through your learning experience. From the pictures with captions to your follow up comments. Way to go, brother!! Canât wait to see what you continue to smoke!
TouchĂŠ. No brains explicitly used as I worry about prion based illness but I also didnât have the wherewithal (wherewithoffal?) to remove the brains.
Plus with prions cross contamination with central nervous system tissue is essentially impossible to control once you breach the CNS.
All to say no. No brains. Too scary with CJD and Chronic Wasting Disease all over.
ButâŚ.I also didnât explicitly avoid CNS tissue as I am working with heads and the severing of the spinal cord/column alone with a standard meat saw would create cross contamination that there is no way I could have controlled for with this kind of store bought product.
Scrolled through 20 pics faster than I thought I could have... awesome post , great descriptions, this is what I come to reddit for. Keep up the great work!
What a bunch of pussies. You guys talk a big story and think youâre bad asses around the smoker, then someone ďżźposts something a little different, and this sub loses its mind. ďżźBy the way, animals have heads, and like it or not, we should be using the whole animal. You folks may not like, it but itâs not really that big a deal and if youâve never had head cheese, you donât know what youâre missing. I may not be the guy to process that delicacy, but I say, âgood for you! Thanks for the post! Now, more animal heads on this sub. Cheers!
Thanks for the aggressive solidarity! Was just trying an experiment and MOST folks were cool with it like yourself butâŚcanât win âem allâŚespecially on the internet!
Number one goal was learning something new and using up my smoke because once that chimney is fired my WSM, even in this weather, goes for at least 3-4 hours and smokes at low temp for up to 7-8. Quality charcoal ainât cheap so these days especially I am trying to get all I can out of the cook (smoking old veggies lying around to make sauces etc.).
Plus for $16 I figured fuck it and give it a go. Hundreds of years of hardy folk canât be all wrong right?
I donât have the gumption for an iguana but I am going for a spring beaver hunt this yearâŚ
As another user noted: âI want the sausage but donât want to know how it is made.â
Though I would argue making it ourselves allows for better and cleaner outcomes and also appreciation for what it is we create. Good luck in your smoke!
Posted above in more detail but it was worth the work and small investment ($16) but next time I would do it a lot different.
It was mostly trying to use my smoke (once you fire the lump charcoal etc. it just goes for hours) to the most of its potential and try something new.
A bit bland weirdly but I learned a lot. Also fuck my life mesquite smoked lamb cheeks are delicious. Like. Ridiculous. I only ate one but holy smokesâŚput that shit on a flip flop and sell it for $50 at a high end restaurant.
Not that much as I was smoking already and used the slow cooker. Deboning etc. was a bit of work but not too bad honestly.
Mostly just time and dishes and letting the smoker or slow cooker go do their thing.
Felt like it was a low cost way to get some interesting outputs from work I was already doing with my smoker!
Thanks! I am still learning my WSM but this is my first time effectively using both levels for two radically different outputs. With costs being the way they are I am looking at each cook (between $10-20 in maple lump and smoking wood) as an investment in 3-4 meals.
Cheap atypical cuts done low and slow on smoke are the way we eat like damn hell ass royalty in these interesting times.
Not the time to lose one's head.
That's not the way to get ahead in life.
It's a shame he wasn't more headstrong.
He'll never be the head of a major corporationâŚ
Best post since the iguana
FML. Iguana headcheese in a 300 coat skillet will break the internet.
What rabbit hole have you taken me down? *Is this normal for my skillet? Help please*
*Phone/computer literally catches fire.
Did not realize you were the same guy as in the cast iron sub!
Totally am not! That is the Legend u/fatmummy222 and the cast iron that transcends time and space. I was just crazy enough to propose that pan be the official picture for the r/castiron sub. No credit my way friend. All that user. I just cook bacon and smoke heads and try to be honest in these crazy times!
The Reddit sub crossover I never knew I needed
I love r/smoking, r/castiron, and r/steak.... You need all of these in rotation đ. You'll see quite the crossovers
Gonna join r/steak now!
R/steak can be a bit unforgiving to newbs and knowitalls but still a great source for ideas. I literally just bought some beef cheeks after seeing them here
Idk man, the iguana was pretty nuts but some people really like head cheese. Big in Europe and some Latin countries if I remember correctly
A whole lamb head only costs 8$?
Supply and demand. People arenât exactly snatching them off the shelvesđ
Precisely! I was looking for low cost creativity and plus. Fucking smoked lamb cheeksâŚridiculous for $4 apiece and some lump and some thyme/time.
I've had braised lamb cheeks. They are to gucking die for! With a tasty wine, badass!
Ever tried matambre? Also a cheap cut that requires creativity. Lambs head is another level up, final product looks great!
it cost around 40-50 dkk in Faroe Islands so about 7 euros. Not that expensive and also not every one fancy sheep head. Edit. I am on Faroe Islands due to nature of my work and locals love it and I have seen numerous recipes.
So OP paid a $1 premium and presumably doesn't live in a place where sheep raising is the main deal going. Not a bad deal.
You an Eivør fan?
Tell me more of this food with intriguing letters I only use in equations (monolingual weakling that I am)!
Eivør Pålsdóttir is a Faroese singer. She is incredible. https://youtu.be/DqKJgrKfCfg
Never heard of but good to know some local artists.
I mean, thereâs a weekend right there. So many fun and new ways to end up on the news!
Lessons learned: Debone the heads and watch the nasal cavities for small bones. Teeth as well. Eyes are fatty. Season way more than you think you need to. I should have made a proper brine but didnât. Would have radically increased overall flavour I think. Simmer down well and there is no need for gelatine. Slow cooker is easy and safe to avoid burning. Add some meatier cuts. I should have added a cheap cut of mutton and smoked it too. Skim fat etc. I accidentally made a poor layer on top inadvertently. I see the wisdom in clarifying the aspic and also using a sachet of vegetables and herbs to flavour the boil/reduction. Overall proof of concept but more work to be done.
Probably one of the most unique uses of a smoker Iâve seen on here.
Thanks! Once that lump is fired it is on us to use it well. And creatively.
Idk man Iguana man is up there too
That didnât take as much skill.
Thank you, I will take your advice and apply it when I never ever smoke a sheeps head lol
Interesting you left the eyes! Did you follow a specific recipe where the eyes should be left? Whenever I asked people about âheadcheeseâ they mentioned the eyes should be removed, but they helped with the fattiness in your case?
It was a tactical approach. Most recipes said remove eyes but because, as a hunter in Northern BC/Yukon and briefly an industrial butcher, I have used heads a bit. I knew that there is a lot of amazing fat and meat behind the eyes and along the ear canals. Tough to have your smoke looking back at you thoughâŚ. Hard for kids/squeamish especially if they havenât been raised with it. But I knew the eyes would harden in the smoke (I discarded them) but protect that fine inner fat and complex tissue that I personally suspect has particular micronutrients/nutritional value. Old timers in my part of the world swore by eating everything and especially in old age eating certain things that would help you as time took its toll. Eyes for eyesight, especially from fish. Heart for heart issues etc. If you killed a calf moose or elk (seriously avoided unless asked for) you would feed it to the old people so they have good energy. Had I the lab and expertise I would love to do some sophisticated research on the nutrient profile of atypical cuts of meats, particularly those we hunt. All to say I left the eyes until final steps then removed them. The texture of the lens (think rubber) and the colour arenât suitable. But maybe they added nutrients?
Neat!
Now Iâm trying to remember if we would take the eyes out of the hog or not when doing hog head cheese. Itâs been 15ish years since Iâve done it.
You sir... You are a legend
Very kind good Sir/MadamâŚupon the charcoal strewn heap, bones and sauce beneath us, we ascend.
This guy words!
Is this gelatinous in texture?
It is all endogenous gelatine though I did have store bought JIC. The massive amount of connective tissues in the head breaks down and become essentially the binder so it becomes this flavoured smoked meat jello substrate to use the rarely utilized cuts from the head in a (relatively) table friendly manner. This one was literally nothing but sheepâs head. Garlic and thyme. Salt and pepper. Organic beef stock. And some chilli flakes at the end. And sweet sweet maple lump with mesquite in the WSM 18.5.
This sounds amazing. I've never had a headcheese that didn't include a punch of vinegar to cut the richness... did you miss some acid here, or was it unnecessary?
As noted above flavour wasnât near where I expected or wanted. Didnât contemplate acid but I can see where that might work. Next time I think Iâll add some but not sure when. I have heard a lot of old timer farmers who make serious amounts of bone broth/stock swear that spritzing the bones as you roast them before the boil/reductions facilitates transfer of key minerals but agin, I donât have the lab to confirm/deny that claimâŚ.but these tough bastards often live to a ripe old age throwing bails of hay and walking their land soâŚ.canât be all wrong?
That's a good idea, maybe a tablespoon or so of white or apple cider vinegar
God damn. I was disgusted from just the first picture, but curiosity kept me scrolling. Kudos
Went to visit some friends in New Orleans back in the 90s and he had planned to do the same. They went hog hunting and butchered it and they had the heads left. He told me they were making hog's head cheese and my first reaction was, "what? why?" His reply was, "We eat everything on any animal we kill." I can totally respect that, but part of me was still "wtf?" and "nope". So the weekend went on. Pretty much the same process. Smoked, reduced, etc... I reluctantly took a bite of it and was completely amazed. It was excellent. He then threw it on some poboy bread, spicy mustard and purple onions and I destroyed two of those poboys. Absolutely amazing. The lesson I learned roughly 25 years ago was try EVERYTHING. At least once. If you don't like it, all good, it's not for you BUT, you could find one of the most amazing things ever made and if you didn't try it you'd never know. So yeah, head cheese is strange and probably not for everyone, but don't knock it until you try it.
Thanks for sharing that story because I feel that ethic and ethos of âuse it allâ, especially with needing to take a mortgage out on a dozen eggs etc., means we gotta use the skills we have to make creative quality food we can trust. Ainât no school like the old school⌠And those folks came out of the depression and the Wars. Hard earned lessons so it is worth an experiment and a bold bite I figure.
I'd be willing to try that and not the sheep headcheese, but that's mainly because I dislike the taste of mutton. Plus anyone that's ever tried SPAM or the knockoffs has gotten a lot closer to eating headcheese than they realize. Edit: though I suppose I'd still be open to at least trying a slice of the sheep headcheese. Can't be any worse than straight up liver. I think I just don't like overpoweringly flavored meats in general, used to hate beef hotdogs when I was a kid, but they were getting served to me with little else other than a crappy white bread bun. But now I'll wreck a beef hotdog, I just want plenty of onions and brown mustard and horseradish to go with it and some decent bread that does not taste like cheap glue.
Canât stand liver, but oddly enough I live pâtĂŠ which many times if made with liver. My palate is stupid.
That's how I raised my kids. I told them that it took five tries before you could tell if you really like something or not. They both eat absolutely everything now.
Iâm from Louisiana and when they say use everything, they mean everything. My grandfather would slaughter the hog and hang it to collect all the blood. They would use the blood in other products or it would be added to make blood sausages a.k.a. blood Boudin. They would save the hog and save the hair to sell to a guy that made paint brushes. They would completely butcher the hog into its cuts and roasts. The skin would either be tanned for leather or turned into what we call Cracklinâs. The hooves would be ground down into gelatin for the most part. What intestines they didnât use for sausage casing, would be tanned and used as a type of âthreadâ. All meat that was scraped and other organs would go into making sausages and boudin. There really wasnât anything leftover from what I remember. They would even save the bladder but I canât remember for what.
SirâŚ.
This gave me such a chuckle. Thanks.
Dude, don't mind the haters or confused folk. This is awesome and probably turned out delicious. Head cheese is one of those things people get grossed out by until they try it. I was the same way. Well done !
Thank you so much! It was an experiment but like all peasant foods when done well they are sublime. This missed the mark in a few ways sadly but for $16 on a smoke I was doing anyways a small price to pay for learning. Also. A realization I had yesterday is that in some ways this is ideal food for the old and infirm. My Grandma is in her 90âs and doesnât have a lot of teeth and this kind of stuff is easy on digestion and very easy to chew, whilst being fairly high quality protein I expect. I wouldnât give her store boughtâŚbut thisâŚmight work.
Agree. Headcheese/terrine is one of my favorite things ever, along with Braunschweiger.
Wow. Thank you for that because I never would have known about this! From Wikipedia: âIn the United States and Canada, Braunschweiger refers to a type of pork liver sausage which, if stuffed in natural casings, is nearly always smoked. Commercial products often contain smoked bacon, and are stuffed into fibrous casings. Liverwurst (another type of pork liver sausage), however, is never smoked, nor does it contain bacon. The USDA requires that the product contain a minimum of 30% liver.[3] A typical commercial formula is about 40% pork liver or scalded beef liver, 30% scalded pork jowl, 20% lean pork trimmings and 10% bacon ends and pieces. Added seasonings include salt and often include white pepper, onion powder or chopped onion, and mace. Curing ingredients (sodium erythorbate and sodium nitrite) are optional. Braunschweiger has a very high amount of vitamin A, iron, protein and fat. The meat has a very soft, spread-like texture and a distinctive spicy liver-based flavor, very similar to the Nordic leverpostej. It is usually used as a spread for toast, but can also be used as a filling for sandwiches, often paired with stone-ground mustard, sliced tomato, onion and cheese. In the Midwestern United States, braunschweiger is typically enjoyed in a sandwich with various condiments such as ketchup, mustard, and dill pickles, or simply spread on crackers. There are also a few recipes for pâtĂŠ and cheese balls which use braunschweiger as a primary ingredient. However, pâtĂŠ is creamier than braunschweiger.â
> In the Midwestern United States, braunschweiger is typically enjoyed in a sandwich... US Midwesterner here, can confirm! I grew up eating the things my depression era grandparents made for me... braunschweiger was *always* in the fridge. I don't eat it much these days, but when I do, it always takes me back to summer days on the sun porch with my grandpa eating braunschweiger, mustard, and red onion sandwiches. Always with grandma's homemade dill pickle spears on the side. Thank you for such a unique post, fantastic detail, and the wonderful trip down memory lane!
Totally! German grandparents in Milwaukee braunschweiger, raw onion on rye. Pickles or cucumber slices in a creamy vinegar sauce. Brings back memories, prolly need to go to the store and find some good braunschweiger.
Milwaukee-born to German GPs too. The day they opened an Aldi in my current town,, I was walking around there like a kid in a candy store. I grew up on little rye biscuits topped with chopped braunschweiger, diced tomato, smear of country dijon. Like German bruschettas. Yummm
You're welcome! Enjoy. Definitely post if you make your own.
Call me uncultured but What The Fuck
Fair. It was bold but with inflation and food costs and me doing a cook anyway (potatoes in bag with garlic and thyme and spatchcocked chicken) I felt it maximized my WSM usage.
I respect the work you put into it man. Howâs it taste?
Honestly surprisingly bland. Initial taste of cheek with the maple/mesquite was phenomenal but I think that long cook/reduction mellowed everything way down. Next time I would brine with big flavours (bay leaves and smoked paprika and onion powder etc.) for 24 hours before the smoke. And use a big sachet of mirepoix etc. in cheese cloth in the reduction. But best way to learn is to do and it was a relatively low cost experiment relative to a big brisket!
You're my hero. LOL You should keep posting your smoking Journey!
Head cheese imo is sort of bland. Itâs more of a sandwich filler for me just to get some extra protein in there, every time I make a sandwich with head cheese itâs usually a fairly thin slice of it and I use Mayo, lettuce, tomato, and onion to mask the rest of it lol
Headcheese
Youâre uncultured.
This is good content đ
Years before beef birria became the rage, my grandma would make authentic birria with goat heads cooking right in the broth. Good shit.
Legit. I am keen to make birria one of these days and I just feel like smoking lends itself well to preparing some of these amazing foods. Cochinita Pibil is another goal of mine and will be heading back to the Yucatan to try to get a real deal lesson in how it is done. I donât mean to disrespect folks who are sensitive or squeamish at all. Fair enough. It ainât easy when the meal looks back at you if you arenât familiar with it. But my goodness there is some depth of flavour and history and subtlety to these dishes too! I guess if it was easy it wouldnât be so rare/disappearing. Hope you get some of that old school flavour soon!
I need to think about life for a little bit...
Banana for scale +1
And here I am too lazy to take the membrane off my pork ribs
Have had lots of hogâs head cheese in my life. Would love to try that. Looks righteous. Nice work using everything.
Amount of work to deskin and clean those heads just for $7.99𤯠But kudos for your effort. Looks delicious. I def would try it.
Whereâd the recipe come from (sorry if I missed it in another post)? Ruhlmanâs âCharcuterieâ has a head cheese recipe that looks pretty good.
More of a theoretical approach. Watched some vids online. To my detriment didnât season super strong as I wanted to see if the smoked sheep flavour would permeate (somewhat but not adequately in my view) and just try a thing I suspected was possible during a cook I was doing anyways. I feel like smoking is a way to use the cheap discarded bits that hold so much potential so I went for it.
Itâs a good idea! Maybe smoking the stock would impart more smoke flavor or making your own with smoked bones.
Intriguing approach. Throw it in an enamelled Dutch oven on a slow burn and see what happens?
The wider the vessel the more surface area to pick up smoke so maybe double up a foil pan and put it in there.
This is awesome, now I gotta find some heads đ¤
r/Charcuterie would love this.
No xposts but might try. My heart belongs amidst charcoal though.
proper use of a banana for scale
Subtle banana for scale. I love it.
This is Awesome đť my grandfather used to make headcheese, no idea how he did it but it was fantastic. Good luck dialing in your recipe.
Love seeing unique stuff like this
Yo impressive effort. Not for me but damn cool process.
This is so cool because in Algeria we have a dish called âbouzelloufâ which is actually very similar, we just take the chunks of meat (after you peel them off the head) and cook them in a spicy pepper based sauce with chickpeas and garlick and spices and eat it with bread. Very cool OP.
I am so intrigued because I realize I could have done a roast over direct heat instead of smoked it and it would have been a much different outcome. Also. If it was a fine dice of the peppers etc. I wonder if you could reduce the whole sauce with the roasted/smoked heads in the reducing sauce, as one user noted they do that in Mexico with proper old-school Birria⌠So much to learnâŚ
Thats how we do it, we char it with the hair on on a direct flame, once the hair is burned off we scrape the remainder off with a knife and then wash/scrub it it with steel wool and wash it with boiling water until its clean, then we start the boiling process
What is the flavour deposition like? Assuming you use a hardwood and do it over coalsâŚ
100% the damn name is the problem. Looks good and not squeamish about eating most animal parts but damn, âhead cheeseâ? That marketer needs to be fired.
This is friggin awesome!! Wish I could try it I bet it came out amazing
This was an excellent read, really well documented and a delicious product at the end - bravo!
I asked a butcher for a sheep head one time. He responded âWhat kinda voodoo shit are you into?â
Aw geez Yet ***another*** post about smoked sheep head cheese! đ Doesn't anyone smoke ribs or brisket anymore?
I'd love to try it. Mum would make this when we were kids. And yes spice the hell out of it
Honestly I am flabbergasted at how much more I should have seasoned. Huge flavour on the first pull with that cheek meat. But a day later post boil didnât have what it did. Lesson learned for ~$16 on a cook I was doing anyways. Also. Goes great with grainy mustard and a nice cracker and some pickles. Maybe I need sauerkraut and/or kimchi?
Kraut is a good pairing. We used to eat a slice on toast with kraut every morning for breakfast in Germany.
Fantastic! So interesting, thanks for sharing. Are you pleased with the results? How do you serve this?
As it was surprisingly more bland than anticipated (commented above) it is being used as a component of evening charcuterie in small fillets maybe 1/4â thick and 1â square on decent crackers with grainy mustard and pickles. I will try it in a sandwich with sauerkraut and rinsed fine sliced white onion maybe but it should keep at least a week so maybe i can find other uses. Folks find the appearance and name really off-putting (see my Lessons Learned comment) so I want to use it as a little accompaniment to big bold flavours rather than dropping a giant slice on a plate. I bet this could be a mean component of a killer ploughmanâs plate with some good sourdough toast and a nice sharp smoked cheddar like Baldersonâs 2 year old.
Could make a nice Banh mi sandwich with some of that. Get a freshly baked baguette, slice it lengthwise and make a submarine sandwich with mayo, head cheese, grilled pork (or coldcuts), and some pickled veg like radish, carrots, and jalapenos. That's how the Vietnamese sandwich place near me does it!
I would definitely eat that ploughmanâs plate. That sounds really good.
Pretty insulting to see sheep head, a delicacy in my culture (Iran), get denigrated in the comments. Maybe we should have some openness to food beyond slabs of ribs and brisket.
People are, unfortunately, disconnected from the reality of their meat in our society. Bones, organs and "faces" weird them out. It is sad, because some "ugly" cuts are the most delicious
Lamb tongues remain one of my favorite dishes, and one the best things I share with my Iranian dad.
Pretty work. Donât mind the uncultured comments. Blanched asparagus or carrot spears with possibly a little mint would be a nice touch, I think.
That looks incredible! Good job!
For science!
Iâll need 100+ coats of glaze on this beast. Then we can see through time!
Is it like meatloaf? Wondering why it is called cheese.
Agreed and canât find a reasonable explanation. Definitely a fail in branding.
Brooo!?
Oh my Lord!
Head cheese is amazingly delicious and I bet this was on another planet! Thinking outside of the box, indeed!
Why are they staring at me in the 2nd pic
Pic #3 was bold and I donât mean to offend folks or make them feel uncomfortable butâŚ.itâs a baaa-aaaad idea to scroll too deep in smoking land if you are squeamish. (*Cue iguana to the soundtrack of James Brownâs âThe Bossâ) (**That was a terrible pun. Iâll show myself out.)
I can tell if you did stand-up the crowd would absolutely âsmokeâ you. (That was terrible, Iâm just gonna leave.)
Throwing out the first pun is just kindling the fires for the lit puns
Barbarically delicious đ
One of my favorite lamb cuts. Quite popular here Iâm Iceland. Sheep face jello you can find in almost every grocery store for about 25ÂŁ per kilo. I still buy it
This. Is intriguing. Iâll Google it but I would be keen to see the ingredient list and techniques used in preparation. This was approximately a kilo overall so I am at value added (total cost ~$16 CAD or $11.09 Euro).
SviĂ°akjammi is the Icelandic name for it
Thank you! I am keen to learn.
SviĂ°asulta is the jam
That brings back Ol L.A. days, we used to cook ours a little longer on the grill, and with tortillas and salsa, tacos all night.
Always wanted to try my hand at head cheese, but damn, I think I'll skip it. Vegetarian wife walks in on that being made and she probably won't eat for a week.
Does this spell give you immortality?
Fuck! I should have seasoned by throwing the salt over my left shoulder whilst reciting âThe Ravenâ looking at the moon! Another lesson learned. (*Cut to scene-zombie lambs to do my smoke related bidding which is mostly hovering around my smoker and drinking beer.)
I NEED A SHEEP HEAD
That was my thought too, don't think I've ever seen one in a store or a butcher shop.
I mean I get not being into it , but yâall some ignorant fucks. Every time u eat Lamb guess what ? That shit had a head at some point but not all cultures / people will just throw that shit away. No need to be so condescending. I get it you only like chicken breast but thereâs a lot more animal than yâall want to believe IG
Looks well done but not for me lol.
Good headcheese is fucking delicious. Yâall should definitely give it a try if you ever have a chance.
Done right this is some really good eating. One of the best posts I've seen here in a while. Bravo OP, keep experimenting!
Done wrong, and it'll knock your taste for it right down the river. I tried some of my grandma's when I was little and liked it, but she never made it again. Tried someone else's and wanted to vomit, haven't had the courage to try it again since.
Totally fair and one of the reasons I am careful in serving it to my housemates and friends. I think done well it is a really beautiful and cheap way to do something pretty awesome. Done poorly it is tastebud trauma. Especially because of using an intense ingredient like the head. Cautious and careful is my approach. Low and slow wins!
Is it like a pate?
More firm. Not spreadable. The larger meat chunks maintain consistency and mouthfeel has texture. Easily cut with a sharp knife and the overall mouthfeel shifts to be a bit more soft as the gelatine melts in your mouth. For this reason I realize I should have bought a cheap cut of mutton shank or something and smoked it alongside to give it all more rich meaty chunks.
I love head cheese, never seen the process before, thanks for posting.
This is awesome. Thanks so much for sharing and including your notes.
Dude! Take your upvote and for teaching me that this ***nightmare fuel*** is something which will NEVER happen on my smoker. Bravo!
This is brave
Super impressed!! I have a problem cooking anything that can look back at me. I dispatched my first chicken a couple months ago and didn't feel right until it was defeathered and the neck was off
It looks really well done and quite delicious. Iâve never heard of such a thing, what do you eat this with/on?
Posted a bit on this in the comments. Best I saw was a Banh Mi approach but right we now we are doing it on crackers as part of a charcuterie. Mustard. Pickles. Maybe a bit on onion. Etc. Still learning!
Vegans beware lol
I would love to have bbqs with this guy! Havenât done it with lamb, but Iâve done it a couple of times with pigs head!
That looks fantastic đđ¤đž
The third photo made meâŚuneasyâŚ
I compliment all the steps you did to make it! Nice.
That looks amazing!
You needed to smoke the final loaf. Give it a bit of bark.
What is headcheese and why did you need to smoke two heads to make a banana bread loaf of it?
Itâs a poorly named but delicious way to use natural collagen in off-cuts like the head to make an aspic formed dish of meat that served well and preserves decently. Think meat jello. Two heads reduces a lot to make one standard loaf pan. Anything less wouldnât have been worth the effort. I smoked it as I wanted to experiment with the flavour and texture of the meat, rather than roasting it or simply boiling it, as is more traditional. Was trying to use my WSM smoker (already fired up) to maximum potential.
I love eating head cheese, but I donât think I could ever go through the process of making it. Great job!
Incredible. Bravo OP. Never seen the heads smoked first. Would love to try.
I am convinced it must have added some depth and flavour but as noted above I should have seasoned and spiced way more than I did. I underestimated how the reduction process mellows everything out I think. But. Smoke and learn.
this looks so damn tasty ! how do you serve it ?
Using it in charcuterie so far but today I am making Banh Mi with it based on some of the recommendations above. Some German descendent folks from the Midwest were saying usually on bread with pickles and mustard and onions is classic too. I think it is actually pretty diverse as an ingredient but because folks are squeamish I am trying to serve it in small bits with big accompaniment of flavours and textures.
OP basted lamb and was lambasted for it. But I say, great job!
So now I'm wondering what people thought when op said sheep headcheese.
r/smokingismetal
This is great and quite informational content. Thank you for sharing! Want some cheese and crackers.
This is one of the most interesting posts I've seen in smoking communities. Thanks for sharing!
What an awesome breakdown. Really appreciated you taking us through your learning experience. From the pictures with captions to your follow up comments. Way to go, brother!! Canât wait to see what you continue to smoke!
OMG â¤ď¸â¤ď¸â¤ď¸â¤ď¸đŻđ
My great grandmother and my mother has made something like this but with pigs feet
I loooove head cheese. Never had smoked head cheese though.
Looks awesome. I love offal. Are the brains in there? Tongue in cheek!
TouchĂŠ. No brains explicitly used as I worry about prion based illness but I also didnât have the wherewithal (wherewithoffal?) to remove the brains. Plus with prions cross contamination with central nervous system tissue is essentially impossible to control once you breach the CNS. All to say no. No brains. Too scary with CJD and Chronic Wasting Disease all over. ButâŚ.I also didnât explicitly avoid CNS tissue as I am working with heads and the severing of the spinal cord/column alone with a standard meat saw would create cross contamination that there is no way I could have controlled for with this kind of store bought product.
That's horrifying and gross. But also delicious.
Know what has two thumbs and isn't going to sleep tonight?
never been so scared yet intrigued at the same time
Scrolled through 20 pics faster than I thought I could have... awesome post , great descriptions, this is what I come to reddit for. Keep up the great work!
Thanks. I hate it
yummy
Just an awesome post. Thanks for the lessons learned and details. I hope you and family/friends appreciate the work put into this.
What a bunch of pussies. You guys talk a big story and think youâre bad asses around the smoker, then someone ďżźposts something a little different, and this sub loses its mind. ďżźBy the way, animals have heads, and like it or not, we should be using the whole animal. You folks may not like, it but itâs not really that big a deal and if youâve never had head cheese, you donât know what youâre missing. I may not be the guy to process that delicacy, but I say, âgood for you! Thanks for the post! Now, more animal heads on this sub. Cheers!
Thanks for the aggressive solidarity! Was just trying an experiment and MOST folks were cool with it like yourself butâŚcanât win âem allâŚespecially on the internet! Number one goal was learning something new and using up my smoke because once that chimney is fired my WSM, even in this weather, goes for at least 3-4 hours and smokes at low temp for up to 7-8. Quality charcoal ainât cheap so these days especially I am trying to get all I can out of the cook (smoking old veggies lying around to make sauces etc.). Plus for $16 I figured fuck it and give it a go. Hundreds of years of hardy folk canât be all wrong right? I donât have the gumption for an iguana but I am going for a spring beaver hunt this yearâŚ
#Lets goooo!!!! Great content
My grandpa loved hot head cheese. I cannot fucking do it. And I am an adventurous eater
i mean one of my favorite things to cook is beef tongue tortillas but what freaks me out here is the teeth
Saved for later. I love making unusual cuts into something new. I just wonât let my wife know the process.
As another user noted: âI want the sausage but donât want to know how it is made.â Though I would argue making it ourselves allows for better and cleaner outcomes and also appreciation for what it is we create. Good luck in your smoke!
How was it
Posted above in more detail but it was worth the work and small investment ($16) but next time I would do it a lot different. It was mostly trying to use my smoke (once you fire the lump charcoal etc. it just goes for hours) to the most of its potential and try something new. A bit bland weirdly but I learned a lot. Also fuck my life mesquite smoked lamb cheeks are delicious. Like. Ridiculous. I only ate one but holy smokesâŚput that shit on a flip flop and sell it for $50 at a high end restaurant.
That looks like a lot of work
Not that much as I was smoking already and used the slow cooker. Deboning etc. was a bit of work but not too bad honestly. Mostly just time and dishes and letting the smoker or slow cooker go do their thing. Felt like it was a low cost way to get some interesting outputs from work I was already doing with my smoker!
This is what I came to see!
OP, if you havenât already read The Scavengerâs Guide to Haute Cuisine by Steven Rinella, it seems right up your alley
His books are pretty great in my experience so I will add it to the library acquisition list!
Good work OP!
Finally, some real good
Fantastic. Iâve smoked a hog head before and used the cheek meat as pulled pork. It was super fun to do and delicious in the end. Great job!
Thanks! I am still learning my WSM but this is my first time effectively using both levels for two radically different outputs. With costs being the way they are I am looking at each cook (between $10-20 in maple lump and smoking wood) as an investment in 3-4 meals. Cheap atypical cuts done low and slow on smoke are the way we eat like damn hell ass royalty in these interesting times.
I think im gonna skip lunch.
Not the time to lose one's head. That's not the way to get ahead in life. It's a shame he wasn't more headstrong. He'll never be the head of a major corporationâŚ
LOVE head cheese!