Brawn at home from a pig's head: a recipe and its secrets

Disregarding the "unserious" parts of the carcass, we often involuntarily deprive ourselves of these delicacies, which, moreover, it is not difficult to cook on our own. Not everyone cooked brawn at home from the pig's head - many scare away the appearance of the main ingredient, others think that it will turn out to be too fatty dish, the third think that they will get an unappetizing soviet-stolovsky product. And they are all wrong. Brawn pork - a thing surprisingly tasty and seductive visually. If, of course, take quality sources and take care of cooking with the soul.

What it is

The German word Sülze denotes a certain kind of strong cold, so the brawn is prepared at home from the pig's head, which gives a lot of gelling substances to the broth. You can replace your head with your legs, but you will not get much meat from them, and the liquid component will become too greasy. And it should be noted that the brawn is more of a pressed sausage than the usual cold. That is, there must be much more meat in it than jelly. Usually a variety of offal is allowed in the dish, but you can manage with one head.

Preparatory procedures

The main thing in the dish is the pig's head. To take it better in the market (official, of course, checked by the relevant authorities). If you do not want to engage in cutting, buy already chopped, without extra "spare parts" (patch, eyes, teeth), but with a present cheek. To cook a brawn, a pig head will need a kilogram of three if you are not going to supplement it with anything. Meat, without removing it from the bones, is diligently washed; If there is a stubble on the skin, it is cleaned. Then, the chopped head is poured with cold water and left to soak. Its duration varies from cook to chef: some can only stand pork for a couple of hours, others last a whole night. However, it is necessary to soak away: water flushes blood clots and makes the meat more tender.

Brawn at home from the pig's head: cooking

For further manipulation, you need a roomy pan, where the pieces of the head are added. They are poured hot water, and the dish is placed on the stove. After boiling, five minutes later, the first broth is drained, new water is poured in, so that it barely covers the head. Four hours the meat is cooked in the usual "cold" mode. When it is almost ready, a large whole onion and a large carrot are put in the pot.

The next stage is the disassembly of the head. Produce it should be very carefully, hands, so as not to miss the small cartilage, capable of spoiling the taste of the final product. Here, cooked carrots are cut, finely chopped greens (if you wish), garlic is squeezed. "Mincemeat" is salted and peppered, diluted with a small amount of its own broth - to the state of not liquid porridge. It is laid out on strong bags and put under pressure, and when it cools down, the whole design for half a day hides in the refrigerator. The next morning the brawn at home from the pig's head is ready, it can be cut and put on a sandwich.

Baked Brawn

It is also called Saltison. The first two stages remain the same: the maceration and cooking of the glacier does not undergo changes. But after disassembly, you will need a prepared stomach or a sleeve for baking. It is stuffed into mincemeat, knotted and sent to the oven for half an hour. Then the future brawn is transferred to polyethylene and put under pressure for the already specified time.

Taste variety

It is not necessary to be limited only by the head. You can use any by-products - liver, heart, tongue, lungs, kidneys - unless, of course, in your family, no one is against them. You can combine different types of meat. In this case, the jelly base is brewed from the head, and additional ingredients (beef, turkey) are in a separate saucepan. Enjoy your experiments!