Original 1914 recipe
Verbatim from the first edition of the Big Cookbook.

Erken's head cheese from 1914: a soaked pig's head is cooked 1 hour with the rind down, the rind is cut off and placed in a cloth, the head cooked 2 hours more, the meat sliced and layered with pepper, salt, allspice, cloves, ginger and optionally grated onion, wrapped in the cloth, cooked ½ hour, pressed overnight and placed in brine (1 l salt to 8 l water) for a week. The tongue is cooked along with it. The stock is used for slaughter soup.
Source: Henriette Schønberg Erken, Stor kokebok, 1914-utg. s. 648 (falt i det fri)
A classic head cheese from the slaughter chapter of Stor kokebok. Erken assumes that the pig's head has been soaked beforehand, and that one has rind, a press and brine available. The stock was used further for slaughter soup.
First cooking
Place the soaked head in boiling, salted water with the rind side down and let it cook 1 hour.
Cut off the rind
Take up the head and carefully cut off the rind to about one finger's thickness. Place the rind immediately, rind side down, spread out over a cloth that has been wrung out in hot water and laid in a large, round dish.
Continue cooking the head
Return the head to the stock, now with the bone side down, and continue cooking about 2 hours. Cook the tongue along with it (about 1 hour - test whether the skin comes off easily), skin it and cut it into slices.
Cut up the meat
Take up the head, cut the meat from the bones and divide it into thin slices.
Assemble the head cheese
Layer fatty and lean meat on the rind and sprinkle the spices (and optional grated onion) between the layers. Add the tongue slices and cover with enough cooked pork rind.
Bind up
Fold the cloth tightly around the head cheese, sew it shut and tie off both ends.
Final cooking and pressing
Cook the head cheese ½ hour in the stock, place it under pressure immediately and let it stand until the next day.
Place in brine
Boil a brine of 1 l salt and 8 l water and let it cool. Place the head cheese in the brine with the cloth on. After about a week it is suitably salted for use. Do not let it freeze, as it easily falls apart.
Use the stock
The stock the head was cooked in is used for slaughter soup, prepared like pork-back soup.
Amounts have been set up in modern units (tsp, tbsp, liter) and modern Norwegian spelling in the ingredient and step lists. The original's "1 —" in the ingredient list has been interpreted as 1 teaspoon of each spice. The method has been divided into numbered steps; the method itself is unchanged.
Original 1914 recipe
Verbatim from the first edition of the Big Cookbook.

Revised 1949 recipe
From the revised edition of the Big Cookbook.

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