Testa

Hello all.

Over the past few moths I've been playing with Charcuterie. I've had vey good results making fresh sausages like Bratwurst, Kielbasa and even hot links.

Inspired by the Sky Full of Bacon video at Mado, this weekend, I'm thinking of buying a pigs head and making testa.

Instead of rolling and wrapping, to make the process a bit simpler I'm thinking of using a terrine for forming.

From the bit of research I've done it seems that you simply gently simmer the head with some herbs, spices and airomatics. When done, pull the meat apart and put in the terrine with some of the stock, wieght down and refridgerate over night.

Am I missing something here? HAs anyone else done this type of recipe? Any recipes, tips or thoughs will greatly be appreciated.

I hope to do some photo's of the process that I will post here.

Thanks,

John

Hi,

If Testa is another name for headcheese, then you may want to check my earlier efforts with a pig's head.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

If Testa is another name for headcheese, then you may want to check my earlier efforts with a pig's head.

Regards,

Awesome! Thanks Cathy

The one step I'd say you're missing is, cook the stock down a bit before you pour it over the meat in the terrine so it's more concentrated and more likely to set.

Rob Levitt also said to season and salt heavily, since you're eating it cold and that will dampen the flavors a bit.

Anyway, glad the video inspired you! Rob Levitt actually provided a recipe in the post that went with the video here, but you've pretty much got it.

Thanks to Cathy and Mike.

Cathy's post and many of the responses were of great help. I've included some photo's of this adventure. They're not great, but you'll get the idea. I'm not very versed in posting photos. I hope it works!

I did quite a bit of research before starting this project and found that while ingrdients and cooking times vary somewhat, basically it's pretty straight forward.

I purchased the pig head from Chicago Meats. It cost $1.09 per pound and weighed in at 11 pounds.

I started with the head, bay leaf, parsley, carrot, leek, onion, shallot, garlic, salt, pepper and clove.



Before cooking, I took a torch to any errant hairs on the head. There were'nt too many.
I tied the peppercorns, clove and parsley into part of the leak and everything went into the pot with water.



Most recipes say to cook for 2-3 hours. At 2 hours the head was nowhere near done, at 3 hours it was close. At about 4 hours it was finally done.



We then pulled the meat off of the head and pulled off the fat, skin and other bits. At the same time, I strained about a quart of the stock into a small sauce pan over a medium heat and seasoned it with salt, nutmeg and ground ginger.

I didn't want the meat to be too finely diced, or even shredded so I left the pieces fairly large. The tounge was diced big and I left the cheeks whole. Next time I do this I'll dice the meat a bit finer and leave the tounge whole as well as the cheeks.

The meat was then arranged into a terrine lined with plastic wrap and about 3 cups or the seasoned stock was poured over the meat. I covered the terrine and put it into the refridgerator overnight. I dreamt of the porky goodness that awaited me.

The next afternoon I unmolded terrine. I have to admit I was afrain the stock wouldn't gell and that I'd be left with a loose, wet mess.

Here's a photo of it before I unwrapped it from the plastic.



I served with crusty bread, some shallot confit, good mustard, a parsely and lemon zest salad and cornichons.



Overall I was really happy with this as a first shot. Next time, I'll add a bit more salt to the stock, chop the meat a bit finer, using the cheeks and tounge as an interior garnish, and maybe even buy an extra tounge.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

Thanks again.

Count me as one anxious to see what it actually looks like!

(Are your pics uploaded to an Internet host like flickr? You need that before you can post them to LTH.)

Vital Information wrote:Count me as one anxious to see what it actually looks like!

(Are your pics uploaded to an Internet host like flickr? You need that before you can post them to LTH.)

Thanks VI, I got it figured out and, although they aren't the greatest photo's, taken via cell phone camera, they tell the story.

John

Can it be done with a sheep/lamb's head? Anyone want to weigh in? I've been trying to keep Halal as of late...........

I don't see why you couldn't use sheep or lamb. However, with the size of my terrine I'd think I would need more than one head.

The 11 pound head yielded exactly enough meat to fill my terrine.

Habibi wrote:Can it be done with a sheep/lamb's head? Anyone want to weigh in? I've been trying to keep Halal as of late...........

I found a couple of links to a blog where the lamb head cheese process is documented:
http://charcuteriesundays.blogspot.com/2009/03/lamb-head-cheese.html
http://charcuteriesundays.blogspot.com/2009/03/lamb-headcheese-complete.html

The use of pork stock (for its gelatin) was mentioned, but I'm sure a suitable Halal alternative could be found pretty easily.

You might also be interested in this intriguing-sounding Turkish variation, which I found in this Wikipedia article about head cheese:

Kelle Söğüş is a variation of head cheese made from boiled head of spring lamb, usually served with black pepper and cumin. A thick soup made of the same with addition of vinegar and garlic is also quite popular as a late midnight dish in order to avoid hangovers.

That soup sounds pretty tasty, actually. Perhaps you can give it a try and post the photographic documentation here for us to drool over?

People interested in testa may want to check a recent blog post from "Hunter Angler Gardener Cook", where he takes a stab at making testa from a wild boar: http://www.honest-food.net/blog1/