In looking over some notes from the past, I found a note on some curious definitions of 'brawn': meat of boar; headcheese.
I can't begin to imagine what I would have been reading at the time that brought about finding these two (to me) unusual applications of the word 'brawn.' Onelook.com indicates they are British defintions. Do any of you here use either application of boar or cheese?
I think a brawn may be the machine you put the meats through to get a fleshy 'brawn' out the other side. I guess meat can be 'brawn' too.
For a lot of women, "brawn" is just beefcake, Wordwind. You're a lot deeper than that. :)
Headcheese isn't cheese (ewww....). Now I wonder, if brawn is brain, why do we separate them as virtual opposites in the expression?
> if brawn is brain, why do we separate them as virtual opposites in the expression?
LOL, that's offally funny, AnaS.
Countess: Marry, that's a bountiful answer that fits all
questions.
Clown: It is like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks,
the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn
buttock, or any buttock.
~William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, Act 2, Scene II
From Father S's link on preparation of a pig's head:
Seasonable from September to March.
...Oh, goody! There's still time!
> There's still time!
Sage is good, too. But seriously, if one can overcome the less rational squeemishness (eating some parts of an animal but not others?!) this is a fantastic creation. Much cheaper and more nutritious than peanut butter... ;)
WW notes that the recipe says that brawn made of a pig's head is "seasonable from September to March."
Somewhere in Jeffrey L. Steingarten's second book -- It Must've Been Something I Ate: The Return of the Man Who Ate Everything, he relates a trip to Paris to witness the slaughter of a 400-pound pig, the collection of its blood and the creation (and canning) of the perfect boudin noir. In the essay, he mentions that pigs are properly killed only in the winter in France. Why this is true, he does not disclose.
black pudding, is a fine accompiment to eggs over easy, and brown bread (hot from the oven)--it one of a few meal i eat that i actually think taste good with a cuppa, (and not breakfast coffee)
in times past, pigs (which need to be dipped in a vat of boiling water, in order to loosen the skin) were only slaughtered in winter months, because the meat tasted best, and 'cured' best if it was rapidly chilled after the 'blanching'--nature provide the cooling, not a refriderated slaughter house. it was 'hot work' to dress a pig, and best done in cool weather.
and hams (if they were only salt preserved, and not salted and cooked with low heat (smoking) need to be keep cool for a few weeks in order to be properly preserved.
most european 'ham' is cured, but not cooked. USDA requires hams to be cooked as well as salt cured.
Hogs were slaughtered on Granddaddy's farm to the south of our own in late autumn. Piggy proceeds were hung in the smokehouse, a wonder of a dark place that I visited often as a child, huge slabs of bacon and all sorts of hams hanging in smoked display from the rafters. It was a house of plenty that never looked empty to me. Pig slaughter was religiously kept from the grandbabies' eyes. I never witnessed the event, thank God. It ripped my heart in two to occasionally witness the catching and killing of a chicken by my docile, lovely, darling Granny. I heard that Teresa Kerry had performed the same vile act, and I must conclude that I am made of lesser stuff, for I could never kill a chicken (or even scale a fish) unless under dire circumstances. Even then...I'm not sure.
I could never kill a chicken (or even scale a fish) unless under dire circumstances. Even then...I'm not sure.
vegetarian = old Native American word meaning "poor shot."