Gala Rah aka German Head Cheese

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Gala Rah Head Cheese is an old German recipe my ancestors made back in the day. The recipe is simple and consists of pigs feet, beef and pork roast and chopped onions, garlic and seasonings.

One thing for sure, there is absolutely no cheese in Head Cheese or Gala Rah. There may be different recipe versions for making German Gala Rah but this is the recipe my family has always used. Matter of fact, I am sharing my Grandmothers own hand written recipe notecard. Old recipes are fun to read but sometimes hard to decipher. Therefore, I share Grandmas recipe as I know it.

What is Gala Rah?

Gala Rah is a gelatinous German recipe that is usually eaten cold or at room temperature and served in a sandwich or plain with crackers. It actually resembles a cold-cut brick of meat. The main ingredient used to make Gala Rah is the head of a pig or pigs feet and boiled beef and pork roast chopped or ground. When the pigs head or pigs feet are boiled for several hours they produce a high concentration by-product known as collagen. The collagen is then used to hold the beef and pork roast together. Gala Rah may also be known as brawn, German Head Cheese, Schweinekopfsulze, Terrine Loaf, Pate, Gallert, or even Gula Ri.

Gala Rah Recipe (Head Cheese)

Use one or two meatloaf pans or a clean half-gallon paper milk carton with top removed to allow ingredients to set and firm up when chilling.

Ingredients:

• 1 large yellow onion chopped
• 3 garlic cloves chopped
• 2 pounds pigs feet (whole or cut in half)
• 1 pound pork roast
• 1 pound beef roast
• 1 Tablespoon each Salt and Pepper

Instructions:

Boil Ingredients Separately (pigs feet, beef and pork)

Place pigs feet, pork roast and beef roast in separate pots and cover with water. Bring each pot to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until beef and pork are fork tender. Make sure water is in pots at all times and does not cook out.

Chop Meats

Remove bones from pig feet broth water and discard the bones (if there is any meat in the bone you can use it). Remove boiled meats from broth water and allow meat to cool. Keep the beef broth and set aside. Discard the pork broth. Grandma’s recipe says to grind all meat but I prefer to chop it. I did make it once by grinding the meat but I prefer the chopped version. Either way will work fine.

Combine ingredients

Combine chopped meats in a large bowl and add chopped onion, garlic, salt and pepper. I chop the onion and garlic together using this chopper. Add broth from pigs feet plus up to one cup of the beef broth for desired thickness. Stir all ingredients together.

Transfer to molds

Pour combined ingredients into one or two meatloaf pans or use a clean half-gallon paper milk carton with top removed.

Chill

Then place the pan or carton into the refrigerator and allow the mixture to gel for up to four hours or over night before serving. To remove Gala Rah from pan allow pan to sit in a pan of warm water until the sides break away from the Gala Rah pan (about a minute) and then invert Gala Rah pan onto a serving plate. To remove Gala Rah from the milk carton just carefully tear the carton away from the Gala Rah.

I AM EXCITED YOU ARE VIEWING JETT’S RECIPE FOR MAKING GALA RAH GERMAN HEAD CHEESE AND WOULD LOVE TO HEAR HOW YOURS TURNS OUT SHOULD YOU DECIDE TO MAKE IT!

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