Elk Head Cheese

I've eaten head cheese on several occasions (here, here and here). Head cheese is a meat jelly made from meat of the head of a pig, cow or sheep, including the brain, eyes, ears and sometimes the tongue, heart and feet. A natural gelatin in the skull provides the binder. 

Rachael's neighbor in Utah is a butcher and recently shot an elk during the Utah elk hunting season. Rachael saw him cutting the elk up into various cuts of meat in his garage. 

When we visited Rachael recently she produced a small foil container of head cheese the neighbor had given her, that he made from his elk. 

Container of elk head cheese.

I eagerly cut a slice and tried it and it was fantastic. It was more dense, fatty, flavorful and less gelatinous than the other head cheeses I've tried. It was mild and had amazing mouth feel.  I liked it so much I had a second slice and this slice had a chunk of cooked carrot in it that was very soft. Rachael asked her neighbor about what made it a little different. He replied that he used neck meat down to the vertebrae and he also discarded some of the fat, using only the best fat.

Slice of elk head cheese. The rounded piece of meat to the middle right looks like a piece of tongue.

A different slice with a piece of carrot.