After our trip back in time on Sunday, I thought I share a recipe from the book I bought at Sovereign Hill, it has recipes from the 1800s.
Dandenong Pork
Get the butcher to put half a pigs head--- with the ear and tongue but minus the brains-- and a long-cut pig's foot in brine for a couple of days. Other ingredients are approximately 1 lb of a cheap and geletatinous cut of beef, such as ox cheek or shin, a large onion, 4 large carrots, a bunch of parsley, 2 bayleaves, 8 to 12 peppercorns, 1 large leek or a couple of sticks of celery, 2 small cloves of garlic, lemon juice
Soak the salted pigs head and foot in cold water for a couple of hours. Put them in a very large saucepan with all the other ingredientsexcept the lemon juice, cover with fresh cold water and simmer them very very gently for a minimum of 4 hours. The slower the cooking the better the result will be, for if they are boiling too fast both beef and pig's head will be ragged and stringyWhen the head and foot are cooked- the meat should come away from the bones at a touch- remove them, with the beef, to a bowl. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, skin the tongue and also the rough parts of the head round the ear and snout where the skin is coarse. Remove all the gristle- what you leave out of a brawn is as impotant as what you put in.
Chop the pig meat and skin which is left on the boned foot, and the beef. ut the tongue into neat slices. Taste to see if extra salt is needed. A brawn should always be fairly highly seasoned or it will be insipid and cloying, so it will probably need extra pepper, freshly milled, possibly salt, and the strained juice of a whole small lemon, a very important ingredient in dishes made of fat meat, but enough used by English cooks.
Now mix the sliced tongue with all the other chopped meat. There will be enough to fill a 3 to 4 pint mould, basin, terrine, or a cake tin. Add about 3 soup laddle- approximatly 3/4 pint- of the hot stock and leave the whole thing to cool. Then cover with a piece of greased paper. a plate which just fits INSIDE the tin or bowl, and a weight. Leave this until the next day. Before turning it out, stand the tin in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes. With a salad, brawn can be served as a main dish for a summer meal, or simply with toast or bread and a mustardy sauce it makes an excellent first course. like a pate
Every time I typed the word tongue I had a shiver going down my back! No way on earth would I touch tongue, let alone cook and eat it!! EEWWWWWW
And I love the remark about it being a nice mains in summer with a salad! Can you imagine cooking for 4 hours in the heat, WITHOUT air conditioning?
recipe from: Australian Settlers' Household Lore, compiled by Mrs. N. Pescott
I tried to find an image of this dish for you ladies, but thank goodness there isn't one!
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