Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Souse

I was up at my gunsmith's place today in Fort White. One of the 'regulars' brought by some fresh home made Souse.

I have not had any of that in many years. Tonight, I will dredge a few slices in corn meal and pan fry them for my dinner.
A few thick slices of fresh tomato, some collards and corn bread, a quart of sweet tea..........and ya got Southern heaven.

I didn't know sweet tea was 2 words. It ain't pronounced that way.

just don't tell em what's in it.......

You go all the way to Fort White for gun smithing? It's a half hour drive for me. What's it for you? Got to be an hour, at least.

man alive, i must be gettin' old. i can remember souse meat, but how was it made? hogshead, blackpepper, and what?

hap an old guy here, and tell us more.

I have drank stuff that probably had crawly things in it, but I can't drink sweet tea and I like my coffee black, straight from the pot. But I do like sugar in my cornbread. Must be a KS thing. I wouldn't know a "Souse" if it bit me on the leg. Life is good.

well....first you sweep the floor of the slaughterhouse.....

That sounds like a fine meal to me. There is a brand made around here called "Charlies" that is good souse. I don't buy it often, but I do enjoy some occasionally. Souse and a home grown tomato makes great sandwiches.

You Southern folks cooking pigs heads for the tidbits? Not me. I saw Top Chef Masters cooking pigs ears and I had go gag a little when I saw them in the market today.
My 4 th of July dinner contribution is going to be an antipasti with cooked vegetables like green beans, mushrooms, roasted onions, roasted peppers, and a cold salad with meat and cheese.

after the yankees got thru with us, and 12 long years of occupation,we had to learn to eat everything but the squeal......

Gus, that was the main ingredients in the souse made around here. A hog's head was cooked until done all the way through, and then anything that would run through an old hand-crank grinder was run through with a liberal amount of coarse black pepper. Then the paste was packed into molds and it would set up when it cooled.
I've heard it called by another name too....Head cheese.
Sounds like the end result of really poor personal hygiene.

Probably not the correct definitions, but when I was young, I always thought that the difference between souse and headcheese was the addition of vegetables to the mix in souse.

I looked up Kutas' souse recipe - this is for 10 lbs

1 lb diced red peppers
1 lb diced sweet pickles
2/3 cup gelatin, dissolved in
4 cups warm water
1/2 cup white vinegar
7 1/2 TB salt
1 TB ground white pepper
1 TB ground mustard
2 TB ground sage
2 TB ground cloves
2 TB ground onion
1 TB onion powder
5 lbs pork tongues
4 lbs pork snouts
1 lb pork skins

After curing, place all meat loosely in steam kettle. Place the pork skins in cooking net, then cover product with water and raise to boiling temperature. Cook approximately 1 1/2 hours. After cooking remove from kettle and let cool. Grind pork skins through 3/16" grinder plate, meat through 1/2" plate. After grinding add other ingredients and sufficient amount of cooking stock to arrive at a finished yield of 110-115%.

After the product is thoroughly mixed, stuff into suitably-sized mold and chill for 12 hours at 34-36 degrees F. Place molds in ice water for approximately two hours to assist in rapid chilling. After chilling remove from molds and place on rack, properly spaced, in 38-40 F cooler. Chill at this temperature overnight.

The Head Cheese recipe is similar but omits the peppers, pickles, sage and mustard and adds marjoram, caraway seeds, ginger and allspice.

Most all food is good if you know how to prepare it right.If your out in the wilderness,and haven't ate in a while anything will look good.Including cold crow.

we have yankees on the forum, and they would not know what I meant if I spelled it "swaytee"

My oldest son likes swaytee. He spent too much time in NC!

Never had souse but grew up eating head cheese, pickled pigs feet and the like. We was po! But I wouldn't change it for the world!

I have had a distinct yen for head cheese/souse for a couple months now. I remember actually buying it packaged in the sandwich meat department back when I was a kid. No longer, apparently; can't find it anywhere, and when I ask, all I get are either blank stares or the people sidle off slowly, keeping a look at me from the very corner of their eye.

I called my friend John, and asked him what was in his souse. This is what he told me:

meat from one large boiled pig's head, along with the meat from the trotters.
two sliced onions, salt and pepper, a bay leaf, some nutmeg and about a cup of vinegar.

He went on to say it was boiled, then the meat removed, and the liquid reduced further. The meat was boned and then diced, The liquid was added back in , and all put into a big loaf pan, and chilled for several days.

Awfully good too

God!--How on Earth do you guys eat that stuff. My College roommate ate that and various pig products that just did not go down right...

Sorry but YUK!

byc, I believe you are either a youngun, or a transplanted yankee

No true Son of the South would turn their snout, er, nose, up at a good slice of Souse!

Today's portion was cold, and served on home made wheat bread, with brown mustard and sweet pickles.