Have you ever had head cheese?

[1999eternal]

I watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and was reminded of the existence of head cheese. Head cheese is essentially a gelatinous loaf of meat cut from the head of a pig.

Have you ever tried it? I never had, looks ghastly, but I would try it on a cracker just to find out, maybe it's fantastic?

Have you ever had it?

[Birds]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Q-T_3.14.exe:

On topic, I am curious about it.

So Shark Fin soup is good, right? But taking the fin is pretty messed up; you may as well just kill them. But shark meat isn't very good, and salmon meat is, and salmon are having problems with their ecosystem due to a lack of aquatic predation in the ecocycle.

But head cheese is basically just the same thing. With stabilizers and stuff added ofc.

So you can make 'imitation shark fin soup' with pork head, if you just don't cheese it at the end. And instead render it a bit to get the 'pork' flavor out, maybe with some leeks and veggies and stuff. Serve that on the side as 'pork-simmered vegetables' with your 'imitation shark soup.' (made with pork.)

Use the whole pig, save a shark's life and protect the currently very delicate predation ecosystem driving aquatic instability.

Could call it 'pork head roux' too, if you dried and/or powdered it.

[Candyy]

Never heard of it 🤷‍♀️

[Tangociss]

I don't think we get that over here.

[Birds]

some places use duck sacs for the same thing.

[Q-T_3.14.exe]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Birds:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Q-T_3.14.exe:

On topic, I am curious about it.

So Shark Fin soup is good, right? But taking the fin is pretty messed up; you may as well just kill them. But shark meat isn't very good, and salmon meat is, and salmon are having problems with their ecosystem due to a lack of aquatic predation in the ecocycle.

But head cheese is basically just the same thing. With stabilizers and stuff added ofc.

So you can make 'imitation shark fin soup' with pork head, if you just don't cheese it at the end. And instead render it a bit to get the 'pork' flavor out, maybe with some leeks and veggies and stuff. Serve that on the side as 'pork-simmered vegetables' with your 'imitation shark soup.' (made with pork.)

Use the whole pig, save a shark's life and protect the currently very delicate predation ecosystem driving aquatic instability.

Could call it 'pork head roux' too, if you dried and/or powdered it.

Never had shark fin soup before. Do I plan to taste it? Never. That's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up. The shark dies slowly. Justice for da shorkies!

[DarkCrystalMethod]

There's an SNL skit starring Favio(yeah, that guy) and its for a product named
"I Can't Believe its Not Head Cheese".

[Chalupacabaras]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Birds:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Q-T_3.14.exe:

On topic, I am curious about it.

So Shark Fin soup is good, right? But taking the fin is pretty messed up; you may as well just kill them. But shark meat isn't very good, and salmon meat is, and salmon are having problems with their ecosystem due to a lack of aquatic predation in the ecocycle.

But head cheese is basically just the same thing. With stabilizers and stuff added ofc.

So you can make 'imitation shark fin soup' with pork head, if you just don't cheese it at the end. And instead render it a bit to get the 'pork' flavor out, maybe with some leeks and veggies and stuff. Serve that on the side as 'pork-simmered vegetables' with your 'imitation shark soup.' (made with pork.)

Use the whole pig, save a shark's life and protect the currently very delicate predation ecosystem driving aquatic instability.

Could call it 'pork head roux' too, if you dried and/or powdered it.

Shark fin soup is a popular dish in China. The rest of the world would rather eat salmon, like civilized people do.

[76561198356019466]

One of my favorite scenes in TCM.

"You like headcheese? My brother makes it real good!"

[Birds]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Chalupabaras:

Shark fin soup is a popular dish in China. The rest of the world would rather eat salmon, like civilized people do.

You can't get the same amount of gelatinization out of a fish. They don't have anywhere near as much cartilage as a shark does, especially in its fin. It's the difference between High Imperial Cooking and like, grilling a fish skewer by the campfire.

Most civilized places do use pigs instead though, as it's really genuinely inhumane to harvest the sharks like that. And also damages the ecosystem heavily.

Which is why the UK has encouraged Shark FIn Soup, even in places where it's banned, to harm the local ecosystem and protect English fishers. Who have pretty much destroyed their own ecosystem doing the same thing.

[kilésengati]

Yes, Sülze is a popular cold cut here in Germany and together with Bratkartoffeln and Remoulade also an essential dish of German cuisine. And it's a delicious way to reduce food waste, too!

Whilst eating brain (German cuisine name; Bregen) was popular here until around the mid-to-late 20th century, Sülze does not contain brain, but is traditionally made of meat cuts usually considered leftovers (like from the head amongst other cuts) and sometimes popular intestines (usually firm ones like heart, lung, stomach and bowel) as well, but not brain.

The name "head cheese" is probably of a humourous nature as when cold it indeed cuts somewhat like a firm cheese, the meat often is softer and paler than usual due to the added ingredients and thorough cooking, and meat cuts like the head are actually used.
But then again, we also have "liver cheese" (Leberkäse) here, a type of forcemeat oftentimes and unfortunately rarely contains liver anymore. Anyway…

'Murican media, like with so many things, likely took that idea and twisted it for artistic reasons or whatever. And since 'Muricans are particularly picky eaters, it worked well and stuck with people there.

[Birds]

It's also used as a soup base. You can grate it, especially if it's in a cheese format as allowed by the fat-protein composition in the brain. It makes rennet unnecessary.

[76561198356019466]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwc2siOPCNQ