More from the Morton Salt Book
(Page 10 of 13)
January/February 1973
By the Mother Earth News editors
HEAD CHEESE Head cheese and scrapple can be made from fresh meat or from cured meat. When cured meat is used, the finished product will have a nicer color, superior flavor, and will keep considerably longer.
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Split and clean up the head thoroughly, removing eyes, ear drums, and nasal passages, and chop off the teeth. Put the cleaned bony pieces containing the meat, along with other meats you wish to use, such as parts of the heart, tail, tongue, feet or trimmings, into a Tender-Quick curing pickle made at the rate of 2 lbs. Tender- Quick per gallon of water. Leave the meat in the pickle about a week, then wash the pieces in fresh water. Place the meat in a pan with water and simmer until the meat can easily be separated from the bones. Dip off the liquid and remove all bones from the meat and chop the meat fine or run through the grinder, using a coarse plate, about 3/8" holes.
Season the meat to taste with black and red pepper, ground cloves, coriander and sweet marjoram. Add salt if desired. After seasoning, return the meat to the kettle, cover with the liquid that was dipped off and boil about 15 minutes longer.
Pour the mixture into a shallow pan, cover with a cheesecloth and weight down. When cool, slice and serve without further preparation.
If it is desired to stuff' the head cheese into casings, this should be done after seasoning and before the second cooking. The stuffed head cheese should then be placed in the remaining liquid and simmered until it floats. Then take out, chill and hang away.
SCRAPPLE Scrapple is a very popular breakfast dish. It is made of cooked pork mixed with the liquor thickened with cornmeal, or flour, or sometimes both.
Cook head meat, hearts, trimmings, etc., until bones can be removed easily. Cook skin, if used, until tender. When cooked, grind all the meat through a fine chopper plate (1/8" or 3/16" holes). Strain liquor to remove small bones, return ground meat to the liquor and bring to a boil.
The mixture of cereals to be added varies according to individual taste. All cornmeal, or 3 parts cornmeal and 1 part flour is generally used.
A rich, full-flavored scrapple can be made by using 4 parts meat to 3 parts liquor and 1 part dry cereal (by weight). More liquor and cereal may be added as desired.
First moisten cereal with some of the cool liquor so that lumps will not be formed when added to the hot meat. Add to mixture of meat and liquor.
Boil for about 1/2 hour, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Shortly before cooking is finished, add seasoning and stir in well.
The following seasoning may be used for each 10 pounds of meat:
| 3 ounces Morton Salt | 1 /4 to 1/2 ounce sage |
| 1/4 to 1/2 ounce black pepper | 3 ounces ground onions |
| 1/4 to 1/2 ounce sweet marjoram | Small quantities red pepper, nutmeg, mace |
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