Pressed Meat (Tlačenka)
Ingredients: 1 lb of pork meat (shoulder, side cut), 1lb of pork hearts and neck, 3 cloves garlic, black pepper, caraway, salt
Prep Time: About 1.5 hours plus overnight for the meat to set
I like food and I’ll eat pretty much anything. However, there are few things I can’t stand, and tlačenka is one of them. I find it absolutely disgusting. However, this dish is favorite of many Slovaks including just about everyone in my family. The name is derived from the verb tlačiť, to press. A crowd of people, for instance on a bus during the rush hour, is called tlačenica. This dish is made by preparing a meat paste and then pressing it together. It is another dish that is prepared during zabíjačka along with hurky and sausages.
You start this recipe by cooking about 2 lbs of various pork meat. About half of it should be pieces of fatty meat (side cut or shoulder), and the other half is made up of other parts, such as heart, kidneys and something called podhrdlina (meaning “under throat”). You cook the meat until it is soft and then grind it in a meat grinder, similar to what was done to prepare jaternica. Save the broth.
Then add a tea spoon of crushed garlic, ground black pepper, half a spoon of caraway and another spoon of salt. Adjust to taste.
Then add about 5 small ladles full of the broth in which the meat was cooking. The final mixture should have the consistency of canned tuna.
There are special bags made for preparing tlačenka. However, these are not necessary, and you can use regular plastic bags. Divide the meat into two halves and place each into a plastic bag. Press out the air and tie shut with a string. Then just to be sure, place each bag into another bag, and tie that one shut too. Place the bags into a pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes. To make sure the plastic doesn’t burn, place them first into a strainer. Then place the bags onto a baking sheet and cover by a baking pan. Place in some cool place (or outside during winter). Weigh down by placing some heavy object, such as a brick or a bag of flour, into the pan. Let set overnight.
And that’s it. Enjoy or at least offer to those who like this “delicacy”. It is often served as shown in the photo, with mustard, onions and smoked sausages.
I am one of those who loves “tlačenku” In the US it’s frequently referred to as “headcheese”.
There was a gourmet shop in McLean that sold “headcheese” and other European especially German delicatessen. I was so delighted to be able to buy it, as it was exactly the way I remembered it and still buy it in Slovakia when I am back, but then they closed that shop:(.
I always tell my sister in Slovakia, just get me some “tlačenku” when I come.
I remember it bit differently (way of making it) We used to boil the pig’s head (split in half and brain “mozoček” removed for other cooking and adding some other pork meat and offal “vnutornosti” like a heart, kidney, etc.
Of course, some onion, spices, salt, etc. When soft, all bones were removed and the meat was put through a coarse grinder, in addition, to make it really coarse (the way I like it) some parts were chopped (not grinded), and that meant things like Ear, tongue, stomach, heart, etc.
Boiling the whole head made for a good gelatin to set “tlačenku” The rest is the same.
I like it a lot, served with onion, a sprinkled with vinegar, with a good bread.
Miro, your recipe makes me want to enjoy tlačenka even less
Thanks for the English name – I had no idea how to translate tlačenka.
The Germans make a virtually identical food and call it Presswurst – or pressed sausage in transaltion. Traditionally this gets stuffed into a pigs bladder. I ate some haggis in england and it was essentially tlacenka. In vietnam the street vendors had a large sausage that looked exactly like a classic slovak tlacenka, but it was flavoured with eastern spices and chilli, but the major ingredisnts were the same, I wonder if the french took it there, or if marco polo brought it back from his travels.