[quote="pinback"]It's all about the [i]aspic[/i], man. The gooey, slimy meat Jell-o that keeps all the pork snouts and beef tongues sticking to each other.

That's good eatin'.[/quote]

You're actually correct, Jell-o is made from gelatin, which is extracted from pig skin and from the bones of cattle. In fact, the episode of [i]Modern Marvels[/i] on cold cuts mentions that when head cheese is made, as a result of it sitting, the pieces coagulate together, the gelatin in the pig encapsulates it altogether.

According to Wikipedia, head cheese isn't always made with aspic, that's a Pennsylvania Dutch custom. It's sort of like the way barbeque is always dry for Kansas City style and is always wet for Texas style. Then each region either goes wet or dry but some restaurants will do one or the other even if it's not the "standard" for that area. Except McDonalds, of course, the McRib is always done with barbeque [i]sauce[/i].

Oh, Ben, did you ever eat the Banquet pork rib tv dinners you bought just to try to tantalize me?

I don't know if I'd like head cheese, but if it isn't too expensive (say under $10 a pound) then I suppose I can buy a 1/4 to 1/2 pound and try it. Then I can honestly say whether I like it or not.

Since you mention Safeway has it (which I was surprised) I'm sure Giant will have it too. There are two Giants I can get to very easily on the bus; one near the Prince George's Plaza train station in Hyattsville, MD; the other near the Rhode Island Avenue Station in Washington, DC. I couldn't even guess where there is a Safeway anywhere near where I live, or rather, on a train or bus line, unless I want to go all the way to the Waterfront Station near where I used to live in DC, there's one right there.

One time some people at the place I used to live at were holding a picnic, and as is common for southern-style cooking, they made collard greens. I decided to try just a little bit, and discovered I did not like them. So now I know.

[quote="pinback"]I suppose it's possible to dislike the taste of liver and gizzards and giblets and sweetbreads and tongue and all the parts we're just not "used to", but it's hard for me to believe.[/quote]

My mother never forced me to eat anything, I was always welcome to try things that she ate, as a result, I like cabbage soup, I like liver and onions (I don't like liver alone, it's too gamy without fried onions). I like broccoli, but only if it has fat on it (either butter or cheese). I can eat broccoli without something on it but it's too bland. I like boiled carrots if they have butter on them; I don't like raw carrots. I like hard-boiled eggs, specifically the white; I don't really care for the yolk.

So I guess I was an unusual kid in that I like broccoli and liver (with onions). And as I mentioned earlier - presumably something my mother didn't - I like liverwurst.

[quote="Flack"]Every year at Thanksgiving, my father calls the giblets. "I GET THE GIBLETS!" Nobody else wants the giblets. We want the turkey.

My grandmother once prepared cow tongue for a meal. I think it was 30 years ago. The thought of it still makes me gag. It just made me gag, just now.[/quote]

Is it the actual [i]taste[/i] of these things that makes you gag, or just the "idea"? Like, we're accustomed from birth to think, oh, cut the flesh from around the middle of an animal, all bloody and dripping with fat and tissue, and that's good eating, but tongue, ew?

I suppose it's possible to dislike the taste of liver and gizzards and giblets and sweetbreads and tongue and all the parts we're just not "used to", but it's hard for me to believe.

Every year at Thanksgiving, my father calls the giblets. "I GET THE GIBLETS!" Nobody else wants the giblets. We want the turkey.

My grandmother once prepared cow tongue for a meal. I think it was 30 years ago. The thought of it still makes me gag. It just made me gag, just now.

[quote="Flack-iPad"]Much like livers and gizzards[/quote]

Man, you are MISSIN' OUT.

It's all about the [i]aspic[/i], man. The gooey, slimy meat Jell-o that keeps all the pork snouts and beef tongues sticking to each other.

That's good eatin'.

Much like livers and gizzards, it's something I'll try after the world runs out of beef and chicken and fish and ham and bacon. Until that happens, I see no need to try "hog head conglomerate."

Safeway has it at the deli counter.

[quote="pinback"]There's no way you're in anything other than these three categories, so let's [i]get it on!![/i][/quote]
You should have included something on the order of "I know it's chopped pieces of the head of a pig, pressed into a casing the way a cheese cylinder is made but I've never had it."

Thus all the answers are unsatisfactory. All I could put down was the "don't know what it is" even though I do know what head cheese is.

Some people claim the complexity of the different parts gives it a much different mouth feel.

I mean, when I was a kid I ate liverwurst. I saw it in a Kresge's lunch counter and ordered a sandwich. My mother recommended against it, she said I wouldn't like it. I tried it and I did. So I suppose if I had it, it probably wouldn't be too bad. I think if I can eat spam or processed ham I can probably handle head cheese.

Of course, I have no idea where I could order it. Target isn't going to carry something that specialized and I doubt Giant or Safeway is either. Would have to find an actual butcher shop that does this. The History Channel had an episode of [i]Modern Marvels[/i] where they showed it being made by Usinger's, a famous Milwaukee butcher shop.

Just click on one of the answers you fuckers.

BTW, that was post #66666 on this site.

Powned.

There's no way you're in anything other than these three categories, so let's [i]get it on!![/i]