between the folds of a towel, and with a rolling-pin mash the bones
quite flat. Season with salt and a little cayenne and black pepper.
Either fry or broil on a gridiron made for broiling oysters. This must
be done over a clear fire. When done, season, put a lump of butter on
each bird and serve hot.--_Mrs. A. M. D._
TO COOK SORA, ORTOLANS, AND OTHER SMALL BIRDS.
Prepare as you would a chicken for roasting. Lay in a pan and pour
boiling water over them or, if convenient, steam them. Scald a few
large fresh oysters till just plump, season them with cayenne pepper,
salt and butter. Pour into the cavity of each bird a few drops of
pepper-sauce and then put a large oyster in each. Broil a short time,
frequently turning that they may not become dry. If not ready to serve
them as soon as they are done, lay in a tin bucket, butter them and
sprinkle them again with black pepper, cover the bucket and set it
over boiling water till wanted. When laid in the dish, sift browned
cracker over the birds, and pour gravy into the dish.--_Mrs. T._
_To Cook Sora, Ortolans, and Other Small Birds._
After they are split open in the back and dressed, lay them in weak
salt and water for a short time. Then lay them on a board and roll
with a rolling-pin to flatten the breastbone. Put butter, pepper, and
salt on them. Lay them on a gridiron and broil slowly. When just done,
add more butter and pepper, lay in a flat tin bucket, which set over a
vessel of boiling water to keep the birds hot, juicy, and tender till
wanted.--_Mrs. T._
SORA, ORTOLANS, ROBINS, AND OTHER SMALL BIRDS.
They should be carefully cleaned, buttered, sprinkled with pepper and
salt, and broiled. When they are served, butter them again. If you
like, serve each bird on a piece of toast, and pour over them a sauce
of red wine, mushroom catsup, salt, cayenne pepper, and celery.
MEATS.
All meats are better in winter for being kept several weeks, and it is
well, in summer, to keep them as long as you can without danger of
their being tainted. If it is not in your power to keep meat in an
ice-house, in summer, keep it in a cool dark cellar, wrapped around
with wet cloths, on top of which lay boughs of elderberry. The
evaporation from the cloth will keep the meat cool and the elderberry
will keep off insects.
If you should unfortunately be obliged to use stale meat or poultry,
rub it in and out with soda, before washing it. Tough meats and
poultry are rendered more tender by putting a little vinegar or a few
slices of lemon in the water in which they are boiled. The use of an
acid will save time and fuel in cooking them and will render them more
tender and digestible.
If possible, keep the meat so clean that it will not be necessary to
wash it, as water extracts the juices. When it is frozen, lay it in
cold water to thaw, and then cook quickly, to prevent its losing its
moisture and sweetness.
In roasting or boiling, use but little salt at first, as it hardens
meat to do otherwise. In roasting, baste frequently, to prevent the
meat from hardening on the outside, and try to preserve the juices. If
possible, roast the meat on a spit before a large, open fire, after
using salt, pepper, butter or lard, and dredging with flour. Where an
open fire-place cannot be obtained, however, the meat may be well
roasted in a stove or range. Mutton, pork, shote and veal should be
well done, but beef should be cooked rare.
In boiling, put on salt meat in cold water, but fresh meat in hot.
Remember also that salt meat requires more water and a longer time to
cook than fresh. Boil slowly, removing the scum that rises when it
begins to simmer. Keep a tea-kettle of boiling water at hand to
replenish the water in the pot, as it boils away. Do not let the meat
boil too hard or too long, as this will toughen it and extract the
juices. Add salt to fresh meat, just before it is done.
Lardering beef, veal, and poultry is a great improvement, keeping it
moist whilst cooking and adding richness to the flavor. Lardering
consists in introducing slips of clear fat bacon or salt pork, into
the surface of meat, by means of a pin, sharp at one end and cleft
into four divisions at the other. This pin may be obtained at any
hardware store.
As the housekeeper is sometimes hurried in preparing a dish, it will
save time and trouble for her to keep on hand a bottle of
meat-flavoring compounded of the following ingredients.
2 chopped onions.
3 pods of red pepper (chopped).
2 tablespoonfuls brown sugar.
1 tablespoonful celery seed.
1 tablespoonful ground mustard.
1 teaspoonful turmeric.
1 teaspoonful black pepper.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Put all in a quart bottle and fill it up with cider vinegar. A
tablespoonful of this mixed in a stew, steak, or gravy, will impart
not only a fine flavor, but a rich color. Keeping this mixture on hand
will obviate the necessity of the housekeeper looking through various
spice boxes and packages to get together the requisite ingredients for
flavoring, and will thus save her time and trouble.
HOW TO SELECT MEATS.
Good and wholesome meat should be neither of a pale rosy or pink
color, nor of a deep purple. The first denotes the diseased condition,
the last proves the animal has died a natural death. Good meat has
more of a marble look, in consequence of the branching of the veins
which surround the adipose cells. The fat, especially of the inner
organs, is always firm and suety and never moist, while in general the
fat from diseased cattle is flabby and watery and more often resembles
jelly or boiled parchment. Wholesome meat will always show itself firm
and elastic to the touch, and exhibit no dampness, while bad meat will
appear soft and moist, in fact, often more wet, so that the liquid
substance runs out of the blood when pressed hard. Good meat has very
little smell and diffuses a certain medicinal odor. This can be
distinctly proved by cutting the meat through with a knife and
smelling the blade or pouring water over it. Lastly, bad meat has the
peculiarity that it shrinks considerably in the boiling, wholesome
meat rather swells and does not lose an ounce in weight.
OBSERVATIONS ON PORK, CURING BACON, ETC.
Hogs weighing from 150 to 200 pounds are the most suitable size for
family use. They should not exceed twelve months in age, as they are
much more tender from being young. They should be well kept and should
be corn-fed several weeks before being killed. After being properly
dressed, they should hang long enough to get rid of the animal heat.
When they are ready to be cut up, they should be divided into nine
principal parts, two hams, two shoulders, two middlings, the head or
face, jowl and chine. The hog is laid on its back to be cut up. The
head is cut off just below the ears, then it is split down on each
side of the backbone, which is the chine. This is divided into three
pieces, the upper portion being a choice piece to be eaten cold. The
fat portion may be cut off to make lard. Each half should then first
have the leaf fat taken out, which is done by cutting the thin skin
between it and the ribs, when it is easily pulled out. Just under
this, the next thing to be removed is the mousepiece or tenderloin,
lying along the edge, from which the backbone was removed, commencing
at the point of the ham. This is considered the most delicate part and
is used to make the nicest sausage. Just under this tenderloin are
some short ribs about three inches long, running up from the point of
the ham which are known as the griskin. This is removed by a sharp
knife being run under it, taking care to cut it smooth and not too
thick. When broiled, it is as nice as a partridge.
The ribs are next taken out of the shoulder and middling, though some
persons prefer leaving them in the middling. In this case seven should
be taken from the shoulder, by a sharp knife cutting close to the
ribs, which make a delicious broil. Then cut off the ham as near the
bone as possible, in a half circle. The shoulder is then cut square
across just behind the leg. The feet are then chopped off with a sharp
axe or cleaver. From the shoulder, they should be cut off leaving a
stump of about two inches. From the ham, they should be cut off at the
joint, as smoothly as possible, and then you may proceed to salt the
meat.
In order to impart redness to the hams, rub on each a teaspoonful of
pulverized saltpetre before salting. If the weather is very cold, warm
the salt before applying it. First rub the skin side well with salt
and then the fleshy side, using for the purpose a shoe-sole or leather
glove. No more salt should be used than a sufficiency to preserve the
meat, as an excess hardens the meat. A bushel of salt is sufficient
for a thousand pounds of meat. For the chine and ribs a very light
sprinkling of salt will suffice.
The meat as salted should be packed with the skin side down, where it
should remain from four to six weeks, according to the weather. If the
weather is mild, four weeks will answer. Should the weather be very
cold and the pork in an exposed place, it will freeze, and the salt,
failing to penetrate the meat, will be apt to injure it.
After it has taken salt sufficiently, the old Virginia mode is to
break the bulk, shake off the salt, rub the joint pieces (hams and
shoulders) with good, green-wood ashes (hickory preferred). Then
rebulk it and let it remain two weeks longer, when it should be hung
up with the joints down and the other pieces may be hung up for
smoking at the same time. It is not necessary that the smoke-house
should be very tight, but it is important that the pork should not be
very close to the fire.
A smothered fire made of small billets of wood or chips (hickory
preferred), or of corn cobs, should be made up three times a day till
the middle of March or first of April, when the joint pieces should be
taken down and packed in hickory or other green-wood ashes, as in
salt, where they will remain all the summer without danger of bugs
interfering with them.
This recipe has been obtained from an old Virginia family, famous for
their skill in this department of housekeeping. This mode of curing
makes the best bacon in the world, far superior to what are generally
called Virginia cured hams.
Shoat (which I must explain to the uninitiated is a term applied in
the South to a young pig past the age when it may be cooked whole)
should be kept up and fattened on buttermilk, several weeks before
being killed, as this makes the flesh extremely delicate. It is best
killed when between two and three months old. It should then be
divided into four quarters. It is more delicate and wholesome eaten
cold.
PORK STEAK.
Remove the skin, beat without breaking into holes; scald with boiling
water, wipe dry and broil. When brown lay in a hob dish. Sprinkle over
pepper, salt, a little sage, chopped onion, and parsley; then butter
profusely.
Grate over all hard biscuit or crackers that have been browned and
serve.--_Mrs. S. T._
SPARE-RIBS.
Pork chop and pork cutlet may be cooked in the same way, omitting the
onion if not liked.--_Mrs. T._
PORK SPARE-RIB.
With stuffing of sage and onions, roasted spare-rib, done over the
potatoes, affords a good substitute for goose.
SPARE-RIBS.
Always parboil spare-ribs: then broil with pepper and salt; cut in
pieces three or four bones each.--_Mrs. W._
_Spare-Ribs._
Cut them into pieces of two or three ribs each; put them into a
covered stewpan and boil or stew until perfectly done. Just before you
take them out, add salt, pepper, and minced parsley.
Put on the cover and simmer until well seasoned.
Take them out of the pan, drain and dry them. For one moment let them
scorch on a gridiron over a bed of hot coals; lay on a hot dish;
butter each one; pepper added; sift over browned cracker and
serve.--_Mrs. S. T._
TO COOK SPARE-RIBS AND GRISKIN OR SHORT-RIBS.
Put them on in a small quantity of water and boil for fifteen or
twenty minutes. Gash them with a knife; sprinkle with pepper and put
them on a hot gridiron as near the fire as possible; broil quickly,
but not too brown. Have some butter melted and pour over the meat and
shut it up in the dish. These are good for breakfast.--_Mrs. P. W._
TO COOK BACKBONE OR CHINE.
Cut the chine in three pieces; the large end must be about a foot
long, the remainder cut in half. Put it in a pot of water and boil for
two hours; then put it in a pan, baste and set it in the stove to
brown. Peel some Irish potatoes and put them in the pot; boil till
done, mash them up and season with pepper, a little salt, and some of
the gravy dripping out of the chine while baking; spread them in the
dish, then lay the chine on top. The largest piece is generally put
aside to eat cold, and is very nice. Turnips are good, cooked in the
same way as potatoes, with the chine.
The chine and ham of a hog are nice, corned like beef.--_Mrs. P. W._
BACKBONE PIE.
Take the smallest end of the backbone, cut in pieces two or three
inches long; put in water and boil until done. Make nice rich pastry
as for chicken pie; line the sides of a baking dish with the pastry,
put in the bones, adding some water in which they were boiled; also
salt, butter, and pepper to taste, with bits of pastry.
Cover top of baking-dish with pastry; put in stove and brown
nicely.--_Mrs. G. B._
TO COOK A HAM OF PORK.
Wash off the salt and put it in a pot of water; boil from four to six
hours, according to size. Do not take off the skin, as it preserves
the juice and is much better cold. It is also nice to slice and broil
with pepper and butter over it.--_Mrs. P. W._
LEG OF PORK STUFFED.
Make deep incisions in the meat parallel to the bone, trim it so as to
leave the skin longer than the flesh; then boil some potatoes, and
when they are done, mash them with a piece of butter, cayenne pepper
and salt, an onion finely chopped, and a little rubbed sage.
With this dressing fill the incisions, draw the skin down and skewer
it over to keep the dressing from falling out. Season the outside of
the meat with salt, cayenne pepper and sage.
Roast it slowly; when done, pour the gravy in a pan, skim off the fat
and add some browned flour wet in a little cold water, and boil up
once.
Serve with apple or cranberry sauce.--_Mrs. A. M. D._
TO DRESS CHINE.
Rub the large end with salt and saltpetre, and it will keep some time,
or you may boil it fresh. Cut the bones of the other end apart,
sprinkle with flour and a little salt: add one teacup of water, and
stew.
It will make two large dishes.--_Mrs. W._
ROAST CHINE.
Chine should always be parboiled and stewed before roasting, to take
away the gross taste which the melted fat frying from it gives. After
this lay in the pan with one pint water in which it was boiled, from
which all the fat has been skimmed. Put in this several whole leaves
of sage, to be removed before serving--just to get the flavor; minced
onion, and parsley.
Baste and brown quickly that it may not dry.
This is only stewed chine browned.--_Mrs. S. T._
PORK ROYAL.
Take a piece of shoulder of fresh pork, fill with grated bread and the
crust soaked, pepper, salt, onion, sage and thyme: a bit of butter and
lard. Place in a pan with some water; when about half done, place
around it some large apples; when done, place your pork on a dish,
with the apples round it; put flour and water on your pan, flour
browned, some thyme and sage; boil, strain through a very small
colander over your pork and apples.
SEASONING FOR SAUSAGE.
18 pounds meat.
9 pounds back fat.
2 ounces sage.
4 ounces black pepper.
12 ounces salt.--_Mrs. J. P._
EXCELLENT RECIPE FOR SAUSAGE.
12 pounds of the lean of the chine.
6 pounds " " fat.
5 tablespoonfuls salt.
6 " sage.
2 " thyme.
5 " pepper.
3 " sweet marjoram.
Mix well together.--_Mrs. S. M._
SAUSAGE MEAT.
25 pounds lean pieces cut from the shoulder and tenderloin.
15 pounds fat from the back of the chine.
1 pound salt; a half pound of black pepper.
4 ounces allspice.
1 ounce sage.
Cut the fat in small pieces and then chop it; chop the lean very fine:
mix all together, kneading in the seasoning. Press it down in small
pots and pour melted lard over the top.--_Mrs. J. D._
SWEETBREAD OF HOG.
This nice morsel is between the maw and ruffle piece inside of the
hog. Put them in soak for a day; parboil them and then gash them and
stew them in pepper, butter, one teacup of milk and a little vinegar.
Or they are very nice fried or broiled.--_Mrs. P. W._
SOUSE CHEESE.
Lay the meat in cold water as cut from the hog. Let it stand three or
four days, shifting the water each day. Scrape it and let it stand a
day or two longer, changing the water often, and if it should turn
warm, pour a little salt in the water. The oftener it is scraped, the
whiter will be the souse. Boil in plenty of water to cover it,
replenishing when needed. When tender enough, put it in milk-warm
water, and when cold in salt water. Boil the head until the bones will
almost fall out. Clean one dozen or more ears and boil also; while
hot, chop very fine, and season with pepper and salt.
Put in a mold or bowl with a weight on top. The feet may be soused
whole, or cut up with the head and ears; but it is not so nice. Clean
them by dipping in boiling water and scraping; do not hold them to the
fire to singe off the hair. One head and one dozen ears will make a
good-sized cheese.--_Mrs. W._
TO MAKE SOUSE FROM HOG'S FEET.
As soon as the hog is cleaned, cut off the feet and throw them in a
tub of cold water with a handful of salt; let them remain covered in
water until you are ready to clean them, which should be done as soon
as possible, as they will be much whiter. To get the hoof off, put the
feet in hot water (not above the hoof); as soon as they get hot
enough, slip a knife between the foot and hoof, and slip it off; then
scrape the foot nicely, and throw into a tub of clear water; do this
for several days. When you have scraped and changed the water for a
week, then wash them clean and put them on to boil. First put them in
a clean pot with a thin gruel made of corn meal; boil until half done.
Wash them off, and put on in clear hot water, and boil till done, then
take them up and throw them into a firkin of clean salt and water;
keep closely covered to prevent them from molding. They are now ready
to fry, which should be done by splitting the foot in half and fried
in egg batter.--_Mrs. P. W._
TO CURE LARD.
As soon as it is taken from the hog, cut in small pieces, wash clean,
press out the water, and put in the pot to boil, with one gallon of
water to a vessel holding four gallons. Boil briskly until nearly
done, or until the cracklins begin to brown, then cook slowly to
prevent burning. The cracklins should be of a light brown and crisp,
and will sink to the bottom when done. This is Leaf Lard.
The fat off of the backbone is also very nice, done in the same way,
and does not require soaking, unless bloody. The fat from the entrails
can also be made into nice lard by soaking for a day or two in fresh
water, changing it frequently, and throwing a handful of salt in the
tub of water to draw out the blood and impurities. When ready to
render, wash in warm water twice and boil in more water than you do
for leaf lard. The cracklins will not become crisp, but remain soft,
and will sink to the bottom; they are used for making soap.
VIRGINIA MODE OF CURING HAMS.
Put one teaspoonful saltpetre on the fleshy side of each ham. Salt
_not too heavily_ for five weeks; if the weather is freezing cold, six
weeks; then brush the hams well, and rub them with hickory ashes; let
them lie for one week, then hang and smoke them for six weeks with
green hickory chips. After brushing, pack them in hickory ashes in a
bulk.--_Mrs. P. C. M._
TO CURE BACON.
Pack the meat in salt and allow it to remain five weeks. Then take the
hams up, wash off, and wipe dry. Have some sacks made of about
seven-eighths shirting, large enough to hold the hams and tie above
the hock. Make a pot of sizing of equal portions of flour and corn
meal, boil until thick, and dip each sack until the outside is well
coated with sizing. Put the hams in bags, and tie tight with a strong
twine and hang by the same in the smoke-house.
CURING BACON.
One peck salt to five hundred pounds pork. To five gallons water:
4 pounds salt.
1 pound sugar.
1 pint molasses.
1 teaspoonful saltpetre.
Mix, and after sprinkling the fleshy side of the ham with the salt,
pack in a tight barrel. Hams first, then shoulders, middlings. Pour
over the brine; leave the meat in brine from four to seven
weeks.--_Mrs. Dr. J._
FOR CURING HAMS.
For five hundred pounds hams.
1 peck and 1½ gallons fine Liverpool salt.
1¾ pounds saltpetre.
1 quart hickory ashes well sifted.
1 quart molasses.
2 teacups cayenne pepper.
1 teacup black pepper.
Mix these ingredients well together in a large tub, rub it into each
ham with a brick, or something rough to get it in well. Pack in a
tight, clean tub and weigh down. Let the hams remain six weeks; then
take them out and rub each one on the fleshy side with one
tablespoonful black pepper to avoid skippers. Hang in the meat house,
and smoke with green hickory for from ten to twelve hours a day for
six weeks, not suffering the wood to blaze. On the 1st of April, take
them down and pack in any coal ashes or pine ashes well slaked. Strong
ashes will rot into the meat.--_Mrs. R. M._
AN IMPROVEMENT TO HAMS.
Sometimes very good bacon is found to be of a bad color when cooked.
This may be remedied by keeping it in ashes (hickory is best) for a
few weeks before using. Must then be hung up, with ashes adhering,
until needed. This also prevents skippers.--_Mrs. S. T._
TO BOIL A HAM WEIGHING TEN POUNDS.
Let it soak for twenty-four hours, changing the water two or three
times. Boil it slowly eight or ten hours: when done, put it into a
dish, as nearly as possible the shape of a ham, taking care first to
take out the bone--turn the rind down. When cold, turn it out into a
large dish, garnish with jelly and ornamental paper. Serve with the
rind on. To be eaten cold.--_Mrs. W. C. R._
TO BOIL HAM.
Put in the water one pint vinegar, a bay leaf, a little thyme, and
parsley.
Boil slowly for two hours, if it weighs ten pounds; then bake. Soak
all hams twenty-four hours before cooking.--_Mrs. M._
_To Boil Ham._
The day before you wish to boil a ham, scrape, wash and wipe it dry,
and put it in the sun. At night put it into water and soak till next
morning. Then lay it with the skin down in a boiler of cold water, and
boil slowly for five hours. If the ham is large, boil six hours. When
perfectly done and tender, set the boiler aside, with the ham and
liquor undisturbed, until cold. Then take off the skin, sprinkle black
pepper over thickly, and sift over crackers first browned and pounded;
for special occasions, place at equal distances over the ham, scraped
horseradish in lozenge shape, and edged with curled parsley. This mode
keeps the ham juicy.--_Mrs. S. T._
BAKED HAM.
First of all, soak an old ham overnight, having first washed and
scraped it. Next morning put in a boiler of milk-warm water with the
skin side down. Boil slowly for four or five hours, according to size,
and if a very large ham, six hours. When done, set aside the boiler
with the ham and liquor in it, to remain until cold, when the skin
must be taken off, and it must be trimmed of a nice shape. Sprinkle
over two tablespoonfuls black pepper. Lay the ham on a grating or
twist in the baking-pan, in which pour a pint of water, and set it in
a hot oven. This mode prevents the frying so disagreeable to the
taste. After the ham is heated through, and the pepper strikes in,
sift over cracker; return to the oven and brown, then decorate with
scraped horseradish and parsley, and serve.--_Mrs. S. T._
BAKED HAM OR TONGUES.
Boil the ham and grate some powdered cracker thickly over it; first
rubbing it with beaten yolk of egg. Bake with butter. Lay slices of
currant jelly around the tongue, and garnish the ham with
parsley.--_Mrs. R._
_Baked Ham._
Most persons boil ham, but it is much better if baked properly. Soak
it for an hour in clean water and wipe dry; next spread it all over
with a thin batter, put it into a deep dish with sticks under it to
keep it out of the gravy. When it is fully done, take off the skin and
batter crusted upon the flesh side and set it away to cool.--_Mrs. B.
J. B._
STUFFED AND BAKED HAM.
After your ham is boiled, take the skin off. Take pepper, allspice,
cloves and mace, well pounded; add a little bread crumbs, and a little
brown sugar; mix with a little butter and water.
Gash your ham and take out plugs; fill in with the mixture. Rub the
ham with an egg beaten, and grate on bread crumbs and white sugar.
Put in the oven and brown.--_Mrs. D. R._
TO STUFF FRESH CURED HAM.