Brawn

Brawn was an essential cold dish at royal and noble feasts from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries. After that it continued to be made at many farms and manor houses when a pig was killed, but it was served less often on grand occasions. In early manuscripts it is always referred to as “A Shield of Brawn”, but it is not clear whether this was because it was made in such quantity that only a shield was a large enough dish for it, or whether it was made rather flat and moulded to