Tlačenka

Ingredients

Meat

• 1pig’s head, split, or 2 kg pork hock and cheek
• 500 gpork skin
• 2pig’s trotters
• 2onions, halved
• 1 headgarlic, halved
• 2carrots
• 3bay leaves
• 1 tbspblack peppercorns
• 2 tbspsalt
• water, to cover

To season

• 6 clovesgarlic, crushed
• 1 tbspground black pepper
• 1 tbspsweet paprika
• 2 tspground allspice
• 2 tspmarjoram
• salt, to taste

To serve

• white vinegar
• raw onion, sliced thin
• dark bread

Directions

1. Wash the head, skin and trotters thoroughly under cold running water, then soak in cold water for two hours to draw out the blood.
2. Put everything in a large pot with the onion, garlic, carrot, bay, peppercorns and salt, cover with cold water and bring slowly to a bare simmer. Skim the grey foam off in the first twenty minutes.
3. Simmer for three to four hours, never letting it boil, until the meat falls from the bone and the skin is completely soft. A boil turns the stock cloudy and the set greasy.
4. Lift everything out and let it cool enough to handle. Pick every scrap of meat, fat and skin off the bones and chop it coarsely — some pieces small, some large, which is what gives tlačenka its mosaic.
5. Strain the stock and boil it down hard, by half or more, until a spoonful chilled on a saucer sets firm within a few minutes. This test is the only reliable way to know it will set, and skipping it is how tlačenka ends up as soup.
6. Mix the chopped meat with the crushed garlic, pepper, paprika, allspice and marjoram, then stir in just enough reduced stock to bind it — the meat should be wet but not swimming.
7. Taste and season hard. Cold jellied meat mutes salt and spice badly, and a mixture that tastes right while warm will taste of nothing tomorrow.
8. Pack into a cloth-lined mould or a loaf tin, press under a weight and refrigerate overnight.
9. Turn out and slice thin. Serve cold, doused generously with vinegar and heaped with raw onion.

Technique

• The saucer test decides everything. Reduce the stock until it sets on the plate, then reduce it a little more.
• Over-season while it is warm. This is the single most common mistake.
• Keep some of the pieces large. Minced fine, it is a pâté; roughly chopped, it is tlačenka.

Substitutions

• Hock, cheek and skin instead of a whole head, which is far easier to source and gives much the same result.
• A little gelatine as insurance if you cannot get trotters, though the texture is not quite the same.

Variations

• A blood version, made at the same pig feast, is darker and richer.
• The Slovak and Croatian tlačenica and the German Sülze are the same preparation.

History

Made at the vepřové hody pig feast from head meat and offal set in aspic, and eaten cold in Czech pubs.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tlačenka?

Tlačenka is a charcuterie & cured from Czechia: pressed head cheese sliced and doused in vinegar with raw onion. Made at the vepřové hody pig feast from head meat and offal set in aspic, and eaten cold in Czech pubs.

How long does Tlačenka take to make?

Tlačenka takes 1 hour of preparation and 4 hours, plus overnight setting of cooking. The recipe makes serves 10. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Tlačenka?

Yes, within limits. Hock, cheek and skin instead of a whole head, which is far easier to source and gives much the same result. A little gelatine as insurance if you cannot get trotters, though the texture is not quite the same.

What is the most important thing to get right in Tlačenka?

Simmer for three to four hours, never letting it boil, until the meat falls from the bone and the skin is completely soft. A boil turns the stock cloudy and the set greasy.