SC - Brawn Question

[Elaine Koogler]

I missed the Brawn Question somehow.  However, "Dining with William Shakespeare"
has a wonderful recipe for "Collar of Brawn" that is absolutely out of this
world....it's essentially a kind of pickled pork roast.  I don't have the
original here at hand, but the redaction in the book is as follows (if anyone is
interested, I can look up the original):

A Collar of Brawn and Mustard
(Pickled Pork with Mustard Sauce)


1 ½ # piece of boned loin of Pork
11 yard of cheesecloth
6 ¼ gal veal or chicken broth
5 gal dry white wine
120 bay leaves
40 nutmeg, broken up
6 2/3 tbsp. thyme
6 2/3 tbsp. rosemary
6 2/3 tbsp. marjoram
1 ¼ cups salt

Remove al but a thin covering of fat from the pork.  Roll the meat up tightly in
the cheesecloth and tie it as you would a roast, then make knot in the
cheesecloth at each end.

Put the broth, one cup of wine and the seasonings into a two-quart saucepan with
a tight-fitting lid and bring to a boil.  Add the pork roll, lower the heat to
simmer, and cook, covered, until a fork will easily penetrate the meat—2 - 2 ½
hours.  Remove the meat form the cooking broth and put it into a glass or
stainless steel bowl.  Pour the second cup of wine over it, add the herbs from
the cooking broth, and as much of the broth as is needed to completely cover the
roll.  Cover the bowl with a plastic bowl cover, set aside until cold, then
refrigerate.

Marinate the pork for at elast one week, turning it once a day.  To serve,
remove the cheesecloth covering and slice the meat about ¼ in thick.  Arrange in
a shallow serving dish and pour a little of the sousing liquid over them, with
some of the spices.  Serve with a sauce of prepared mustard to which a little
vinegar has been added.

 I do know that both this reference and another that I found in a book on Henry
VIII and feasts at Hampton Court both indicate that this dish was used for
Christmas feasts primarily.

Kiri

James Prescott wrote:

> At 01:56 -0800 2001-01-31, rbutler_gg wrote:
>
> > Brawn is best from the holy Rood day til Lent, and at no
> > other time commonlie used for service.
>
> The OED offers two animal-specific meanings, and notes that they
> are exclusively English usages:
>
> 3. The flesh of the boar.  <citations from 1377 to 1828>
>
> 4. A boar (or swine) as fattened for the table.  <citations from
>    1400 to 1807>
>
> Holy Rood Day = September 14.
>
> --
> All my best,
> Thorvald Grimsson / James Prescott <prescotj at telusplanet.net> (PGP user)
>
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