My head cheese:
I used four tongues, two feet (split), skins with fat trimmed off, and some bone-in picnic, the latter because I wanted some larger chunks of meat than I thought I might get from hocks. I cured it all for 4 days, then poached for about 3 hours with carrot, celery, onion, parsley, salt, whole peppercorns and bay leaves. The skins were in a netting bag to make fishing them out easier. I froze the skins, then ground them through a fine plate. I separated the meat off the bones while still hot, then cooled the meat overnight before cutting into cubes. I chose not to use all the little bits of meat, as I'm sure would be traditional, because I wanted the gelatin to have a clear appearance and the meat cubes to really stand out. I put the stock in the fridge overnight to make removing the fat easier and also to see how it gelled.
The next day I found it had gelled up to a consistency like homemade jelly when you don't add extra pectin--not stiff enough for head cheese--so I knew I'd have to add some commercial gelatin. I warmed the gelled stock until it was liquid again, strained it twice through cheesecloth, then brought it to a simmer and reduced by about a third. I took around 300 ml of stock out, let it cool, then added some commercial gelatin. I seasoned the meat cubes with ground caraway, white pepper, allspice and fresh garlic. At this point I believe I should have added the ground skin, but I completely forgot about it. Oh well. I stuffed the meat loosely into a 100mm fibrous casing, then filled it up with that 300 ml of liquid. Then I poached in plain water at 70C for 90 minutes. I'm thinking this casing was not as impermeable as I had hoped, and perhaps I lost some liquid through the casing?
Some questions:
Since the meat is pre-cooked, what is the purpose of poaching the stuffed casing? Wouldn't the product be similar if it were stuffed and simply cooled and allowed to gel?
As I said, I forgot to add the ground skin, but it occurs to me that since they have already been boiled what's left are tiny rubbery bits. Do these remain rubbery in the finished head cheese? Or do they disintegrate and disappear during the poaching?
Any thoughts on how to avoid the shriveling you see in the pic? I suspect it has something to do with stuffing loosely and adding a lot of liquid. If I understand correctly, the traditional product is stuffed more tightly by including all the small bits of meat and only a small amount of liquid.
The good news is I have a lot of that gelatinous stock left over, and I may cure some more meat chunks and make a terrine-style head cheese or meat jelly.