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The Stewpot Recipe Gallery
Mock Boar's Head
by
Arwen Southernwood
Original Recipe
Note: This recipe is conjectural; it uses foods known in period,
prepared in ways that were known in period, but it is not a redaction of
a recipe from a period source. Caveat emptor!
Redaction
Ingredients:
3 pounds ground pork OR ground beef OR a mixture of both
2 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons Poudre Fort
1 large turnip, for tusks
2 round red radishes, for eyes
Preparation Steps
Mix meat and seasonings thoroughly. Mold the head out
of the meat mix, putting aside enough to mold the ears separately.
Cover loosely with aluminum foil. Make the ears a little on the large
side: small pieces shrink more than large ones do. Wrap loosely in
foil. Put all this on a baking pan and bake in a 350 degree F oven
for 1.5 hours, removing the ‘ears’ halfway through. Cool.
To assemble, remove the foil from cooled pieces. Insert toothpicks
into the bases of the ears and attach in the proper positions. Carve
tusks out of turnips, and insert them with toothpicks at the base.
Add radish eyes, pushed slightly into the meat, and place “head” on a platter,
surrounded with parsley, if desired. Serve hot or cold.
Redaction Notes
This is my adaptation of the recipe for “Farsure” Boar’s Head,
from Pleyn Delit. It is inspired by descriptions of sotelties and
spectacle foods, especially those where one kind of meat is made to look
like another, and those where finely chopped/ground meat molded into various
shapes (such as Pommes Dorres).
When I made this dish for the Costume Collegium V reception, I chose to
make the boar's heads from beef rather than pork or a mixture, due to the
fact that several attendees at that event do not eat pork.
References
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Hieatt, Constance B. et. al. Pleyn Delit, second edition.
University of Toronto Press, 1996.
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