Recipe: Head Cheese

1 Put the head, ear, carrots, onions studded with cloves, coarse salt, peppercorns and juniper berries, the bouquet garni in a large pot and cover generously with water.

2 Bring to a gentle boil as you would for a pot-au-feu, remove the impurities and cook until the meat detaches easily from the bones (the lower jaw will detach: you must be careful to separate it from the skull before removing it from the pot at the end of cooking), which should take about 3 hours (prick the rind to check, the knife should go in easily, but with just a little resistance). Always skim regularly, add the white wine after about 1 hour of cooking (adding cold wine to the boiling broth will activate the rise of impurities).

3 After cooking, turn off the heat, remove with a skimmer the first piece (you have the half skull with its ear and tongue, an additional ear if any and the lower half jaw), bone it on a cutting board, cut into medium-sized dice (the ears should be cut into strips and then cut again and the tongue should be peeled before cutting) and place gradually into a large hot bowl (on a turned-off bain-marie for example), salt and pepper again then spread slightly chopped flat parsley leaves, finally repeat all of these operations with the 2nd piece, the 3rd. You will thus have layers of various textures (meat, rind, tongue, ear) which you must mix well in the bowl. It is important that everything remains somewhat hot to prevent too quick setting, which would hinder good mixing and packing in the container.

4 Place while still slightly warm or at least lukewarm in the chosen container, possibly line (lightly dampened) with plastic wrap to facilitate unmolding if you don't want to slice the pâté in its mold, press down to remove air bubbles and level the surface. Pour (if necessary) very gently a little of the cooking broth, filtered and hot to remain liquid. Let cool, cover with plastic wrap and let set well in the refrigerator. Wait until the next day to serve in slices, with (your choice of) cornichons, small pickled onions or mustard and a good crispy, well-seasoned salad. Serve with a good cold white wine or a Beaujolais (I would rather recommend white wine). Let the broth set and cool completely, then degrease with a spoon.