HOOFDKAAS (Head Cheese)

 HEAD CHEESE

     The following Recipe came by way of an inherited cookbook produced back in 1936.  Titled "A Book of Authentic Dutch Recipes" (Hollandsche Kookerrij Boek), it was a collection of recipes from some of the pioneer Dutch housewives who with their families arrived from the Netherlands and were the original settlers of Holland, Michigan . 
     The unusual little book served as an introduction to a few highlights of Netherlandish culinary art and was purchased by my Mother and Father on one of their annual trips up to the Tulip Festival in Holland, MI. 

Recipe:
     Clean head, tongue and heart of a porker (pig).  Soak in salty water a few hours.  Drain and boil until meat slips off the bone.  Chop fine and season with salt, pepper, and cloves.  Mix well and pack in molds, such as single bread loaf pans.  Refrigerate until thoroughly cold.  Once congealed, it is ready to slice and serve.  Goes well with mustard, pickles, onions and wheat bread. 

     Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands and in the native language of Limburgisch, head cheese is called hoofdkaas, and is eaten on bread or with special sausage as a starter.  It is usually eaten cold or at room temperature as a luncheon meat.  There's a red, sweet variety and a slightly Sour, grey variety.  Historically meat jellies have been considered peasant food since the Middle Ages and were made of the cleaned (all organs removed) head of the animal, which was simmered to produce stock. When the finished product is packed into a mold and cooled, the stock congeals because of the natural gelatin found in the skull.