Headcheese and organ sausage

[atomicsmoke]

Headcheese and organ sausage from a pig i just got

 

[yankee2bbq]

Ohh man..thats cool! I get head cheese from the deli for lunch meat. I’m sure yours is way better!!!

 

[bgosnell151]

Head cheese is the number one thing I want to try. I can’t find it anywhere near me in northern MA!

 

[processhead]

You can make a lot of fun stuff from the leftover "parts".
I have made quite a bit of braunschweiger, liver sausage, and jaternice from the "specialty cuts"

 

[Hoots]

I grew up on headcheese, and everything else that my parents could find to make out of the hog. They used to help my uncle butcher his hogs and my dad got a whole hog for the work. Plus my dad was a skilled butcher taught by a couple of old timers from town. My dad could really skin a deer. Mom used to make what she called paunhause.. probably missed the spelling, but it's like mush or scrapple, and she always saved the broth from the head and feet.. and everything in-between. Good floured and fried

 

[SmokinEdge]

I grew up on headcheese, and everything else that my parents could find to make out of the hog. They used to help my uncle butcher his hogs and my dad got a whole hog for the work. Plus my dad was a skilled butcher taught by a couple of old timers from town. My dad could really skin a deer. Mom used to make what she called paunhause.. probably missed the spelling, but it's like mush or scrapple, and she always saved the broth from the head and feet.. and everything in-between. Good floured and fried

We get pork heads in around here a bit later in the season. I’ll be making some head cheese.

 

[Hoots]

We get pork heads in around here a bit later in the season. I’ll be making some head cheese.

Yum.
Been a long time since I ate headcheese. An old town butcher used to have it here at a little grocery store he ran uptown, but years ago, but it's a bar now. There's a lot of things you can do with the head.. enjoy

 

[whistlepig]

I like it if it's made right. We called it souse.

 

[SMOKEOCD]

I don’t use a pig head, but I make a pretty good pig jello, works with beef too. I follow an aspic recipe out of a charcuterie book but with more bones in the broth it firms up to a nice solid jello. Tons of garlic, cooked and raw. It’s my flu remedy.

 

[okie sawbones]

I'll pass.

 

[zwiller]

I like it if it's made right. We called it souse.

Also called the souse here too.

I starting pickling sausage and eggs and grabbed a container of pickling spice. On a whim I tried some on a meat rub and I'll be damned if it didn't remind me of the flavor of souse. Based on my leberwurst trials I'd say there's a large amount of onion in souse and offal stuff too.

 

[GatorAGR]

You guys are built different My first off-farm job as a teenager was at a local butcher. I'll never forget when an old guy came in an ordered head cheese. I had no idea it really was "head" cheese. Definitely a no for me lol.

 

[Hoots]

You guys are built different My first off-farm job as a teenager was at a local butcher. I'll never forget when an old guy came in an ordered head cheese. I had no idea it really was "head" cheese. Definitely a no for me lol.

I remember the smell of my mom burning the hairs off the head, ears, and feet before cooking them. She handled everything with careful food care prep for her process. Everything had it's special place and use. Even the 'cracklins'. After a first initial bite, it's all good

 

[whistlepig]

I never knew the term head cheese until I bought a package at grocery store in their lunch meat section. My gosh was that nasty stuff. We made our own souse. I don't think anyone could buy good souse anywhere these days.

 

[Fueling Around]

My grandmother was in her 80’s when she stopped making head cheese. My mother never made it
Definitely an acquired taste and the texture isn’t something that I don’t care for

 

[Hoots]

I never found it to be bad tasting in any way ...I mean meat in broth is good by any good cook's hands. The finished product with the pieces of meat being suspended in the jelled broth might be a texture issue for some, but with a little more ground process of the meat it might help . And, any meats could be made in the same way... just a yummy lunch meat if you think about it.

 

[zwiller]

I see souse at the Amish places I go. I am not scared off by head cheese at all but it's just not exciting to me, nostalgia to most I bet. I do routinely seek out leberwurst/braunschweiger which my family thinks is pretty gross and on par with head cheese. Never had it, but pickled beef tongue is HUGE here. Local meat markets ALWAYS have stock it.

 

[Hoots]

I see souse at the Amish places I go. I am not scared off by head cheese at all but it's just not exciting to me, nostalgia to most I bet. I do routinely seek out leberwurst/braunschweiger which my family thinks is pretty gross and on par with head cheese. Never had it, but pickled beef tongue is HUGE here. Local meat markets ALWAYS have stock it.

Now I love anything pickled. I've done a lot of pickling as well as fermented foods. One joke amongst my older children is about Mom's "mothers" growing in her cabinets . Maybe it's time to pickle some meat

 

[whistlepig]

I miss the souse and sweetbreads from back in the day.

 

[Fueling Around]

I mistyped on my description of head cheese.
Definitely an acquired taste AS I don't like the texture.

I see souse at the Amish places I go. I am not scared off by head cheese at all but it's just not exciting to me, nostalgia to most I bet. I do routinely seek out leberwurst/braunschweiger which my family thinks is pretty gross and on par with head cheese. Never had it, but pickled beef tongue is HUGE here. Local meat markets ALWAYS have stock it.

Never remember souse around here in MN. Liverwurst is still around but not made by local processors anymore. Leberwurst is not a name I remember, as I grew up in Scandinavian territory and not the German, Chech, and Polish regions.
I need to work on making liver sausage as my wife loves it too, but wants a reduced sodium rendition.
I'm not sure what parts of Germany her family came from, but she as I are third generation American

Now I love anything pickled. I've done a lot of pickling as well as fermented foods. One joke amongst my older children is about Mom's "mothers" growing in her cabinets . Maybe it's time to pickle some meat

Something that used to be common here was pickled turkey gizzard. Made sense to me as MN is one of the top turkey producing (and processing) states. Well processing has gotten less and less so pickled gizzards are harder to find. They were so good with a beer or three.