Pressed pig's head terrine with homemade mustard and pickles

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Emily Watkins' pig's head terrine recipe is a wonderful take on brawn - a rustic British dish of shredded and jellied pig's head. This dish is best served with Emily's potato bread with Guernsey butter

First published in 2015

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Pig's head

Terrine

Mustard

Pickled onions

Crackling

Equipment

  • Blender
  • Terrine mould
  • Spice grinder

Method

1
To prepare the pig's head, place all of the ingredients in a large stock pot and braise for approximately 4 hours, or until the meat is falling off the bone
2
Leave to cool in the liquor, then remove the head from the pan, pick all of the meat off the head and reserve. Strain the cooking liquor into a clean pan and reserve
3
Weigh out 450g of head meat and place in a bowl. Sweat the shallots and sage in a dash of oil, then add to the bowl with the meat
  • olive oil
  • 100g of shallots, cut into brunoise
  • 5 sprigs of sage, leaves picked and shredded
4
Mix all of the other ingredients in with the meat and season to taste. Place into mini terrine moulds, pour in enough cooking liquor to just cover the meat. Place in the fridge to set overnight
5
To make the mustard, toast half of the mustard seeds in a dry pan until golden, then blitz in a spice grinder with the un-toasted seeds until they form a fine powder
6
Place the vinegar, honey, pork stock, salt and sage leaves in a pan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, strain off the sage leaves and leave the liquid to cool
7
Place the mustard powder, vinegar mix and apple juice in a blender and blitz into a thick paste. Set aside at room temperature and, if possible, allow to mellow for 24 hours
8
For the pickled onions, bring the vinegar, olive oil, sugar, salt and coriander seeds to the boil, then drop in the onions and remove from the heat. Leave for 24 hours to pickle
9
Preheat the oven to 100°C/gas mark 1/4
10
For the crackling, cut the pig skin into 1cm strips and place on a tray lined with parchment paper. Season generously with salt and place into the oven for 4 hours
11
Increase the oven temperature to 220°C/gas mark 8 and cook for 6-8 minutes until golden, curled and crispy
12
To serve, turn out the terrine and serve with the mustard, pickled onions and crackling
First published in 2015

Mother of three and previously chef-owner at The Kingham Plough, Oxfordshire, Emily Watkins has a lot on her proverbial plate. But it hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of Britain’s leading chefs.

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