Merry Christmas, you punk-ass bitches.
I need your help.
Last night while I was getting drunk with my landlady, she gave me a dish of something I can’t entirely identify. I’m kinda scared of it.
Mystery Meat
I’m pretty sure it came from a pig originally, but I’m not sure what part, and I’m not sure how long it hasn’t been refrigerated, or how to cook it, or what.
You decide its fate!
Exiled Stardust 
I did a search on Google for Slovenian Cuisine based on the photo of the mystery meat and this is what I came up with so far (I am probably wrong as to what it is, but I figured that I might as well give it a try):
1. It might possibly be some variant of a food called Mavželj:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mav%C5%BEelj
http://www.slovenia.info/en/recepti/Mav%C5%BElji-or-ma%C5%BEeljni.htm?recepti=9363&lng=2
2. It might possibly be some Slovenian variant of head cheese:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_cheese
Taken directly from Wikipedia:
“Slovenia:
In Slovenia is known as tlačenka, literally “pressed-one”. Informally is also known as žolca.”
http://www.slovenia.info/en/recepti/Tla%C4%8Denka-(Pork-and-Vegetable-Aspic).htm?recepti=10568&lng=2
This is the best that I could do in terms of identifying what it is. Hope that helps!
And Merry Christmas to you too.
Wow! Thank you.
I’m still afraid of it and I can’t decide whether to try it or not. Looking at it kinda makes me want to hurl, but it smells good.
How funny!
I have a christmas family recipe which looks similar to what you got there. My husband loves it, I make it for him every year. Looks like headcheese to me.
To get the gelatin you have to simmer pigs’ feet for a couple of hours, then you remove the meat from the bones cut it in pieces, add some more cooked meats and season it of course! Goes in a mould, fridge, set, done, eat.
Ours looks even worse because I add red beets and the whole thing is bright red 🙂
Enjoy!
..so did you eat it?!?
No, I didn’t eat it.
It’s still sitting in my refrigerator.
I’m too afraid of it.
If I throw it away, my landlady will see. We use the same trash can.
I think I may end iup giving it to the cats.
it is not mavželj even mežerli, but žolca and not tlačenka = head cheese. for žolca (zolca) take pork legs, ears and tail with sam soup vegetables and seasoning. put wother over mit and simer for few hours (more time, beter ). clear meat with skin from bones. put it on models with soup lined over the mit. garnish with parsley, paprika and if you wish with sliced hard boiled egs. live over night on cold place to come hard – gelatining. beter for zolca is to slovly lose temperature in some cold place, not quckly in refrigerator.
LePomešaj – StirUp
Hey there…I’m giving you this information a bit late I guess since it’s (hopefully) gone by now. But so you that you’ll know in the future, in case you come across this dish again, this is actually lower category pork meat (legs, ears, face bits…) boiled sort of like a stew, but the stew it’s cooked in, turns into aspic because of the meat which produces gellatino. It’s a very old (not necessairly) Slovenian dish, when people didn’t throw anything away. The good side about it is, that people knew how to make anything taste good in those days, even the kind of meat a normal person these days would probably just throw away.
I say try it next time with pepper, garlic, boiled eggs and bread. Then you have yourself a proper meal. It might not suit you at first, knowing what you eat, but once you get past that kind of thinking, it can be quite a treat! I work as a butcher in Slovenia and this kind of thing is normal to me. I made it from scratch many times and have no problem eating a lot of it. I’m telling you…there’s more to be afraid of when you’re eating hot dogs…in this case you at least know for sure what’s inside and it’s all meat.
Too bad I didn’t see this post before, but hopefully it’s still helpful =)
Slovenian butcher guy! Come back! I have a million questions for you!