Head

Symbolically, heads, carrying much of an animal’s identity, may represent more than simply meat, and have some deeper, cultural significance. Despite a sharp decline in the use of whole, undisguised heads on British tables, a few symbolic dishes survive. A pig’s head, cooked and suitably adorned, can be a centrepiece ‘boar’s head’ for a feast (although if this is intended to be purely ornamental, it may just be a raw head under a decorative aspic glaze piped with lard curlicues).