with the finger, and the lean will break by pinching. If fresh, the meat
is smooth and dry; but if damp and clammy, it is tainted. If the fat is
rough with little kernels, the pig has had a disease resembling the
measles, and to eat it is poisonous. Pigs that have short legs, and
thick necks, are the best. Pigs fed entirely on slop make very bad pork.
They should be kept up for at least two months, fed with corn, and not
allowed during the time of fattening to eat any sort of trash. No animal
tastes more of its food than a pig. If allowed to eat the garbage of
fish, they will not only have a fishy taste, but a smell of fish so
intolerable, when cooking, that such pork cannot be endured in the
house. During the two months that they are kept up to fatten, all their
food must be wholesome as well as abundant, and it does them much good
to have soap-suds given to them occasionally. Let them have plenty of
corn, and plenty of fresh water. They will thrive better and make finer
pork, if their pens are not allowed to be dirty. No animal actually
likes dirt, and even pigs would be clean if they knew how. It is very
beneficial to young pigs to wash them well in soap and water. We have
seen this often done with great care.
The pork in Spain and Portugal is delicious, from being fed chiefly on
the large chestnuts, of which there is great abundance in those
countries. These pigs are short-legged and thick-bodied--a profitable
species. The best pieces of a pig are the hind-leg and loin; the next is
the shoulder, or fore-leg. The spare-rib, (pronounced sparrib by the
English,) affords so little meat, and the bones are so tedious to pick,
that it is seldom seen on good American tables, nothing being popular
with us that cannot be eaten fast or fastish.
Pork must be thoroughly cooked; done well, and completely to the very
bone. Who ever asked for a slice of pork _done rare_? Who could eat pork
with the blood appearing, when served? So it is with veal. Underdone
veal, or underdone chicken, is not to be thought of without disgust.
Pork, for boiling, is always previously salted or corned. Fresh pork,
however, is very good _stewed_ or cooked slowly in a very little water,
and with plenty of vegetables in the same pot. The vegetables should be
potatos, (either sweet or white,) pared and cut into pieces--parsnips
the same, or yams in thick slices. For corned pork cook the vegetables
separately from the meat, or they will taste too salt and fat. They
should be cabbage, or green sprouts, green beans or peas, green corn,
young poke, squash, pumpkin, or cashaw, (winter squash,) boiled, mashed,
and squeezed.
For salt pork, in winter, have dried beans or dried peas; first boiled,
and then baked.
TO ROAST PORK.--The roasting pieces are the loin, the leg, the saddle,
the fillet, the shoulder and the spare-rib, (which last is found between
the shoulder or fore-leg,) and the griskin or back-bone. All roast pork
should be well seasoned; rubbed with pepper, salt, or powdered sage or
marjoram. Score the skin with a sharp knife, making deep lines at
regular distances, about an inch apart. Cross these lines with others,
so as to form squares or diamonds. Make a stuffing of minced sage or
marjoram leaves; bread-crumbs; if liked, a very little minced onion
previously boiled; and some powdered mace. Introduce this stuffing
profusely wherever it can be inserted, loosening a piece of the skin,
and fastening it down again with a small skewer. In a leg or shoulder
you can put in a great deal at the knuckle. In a fillet or large end of
the leg, stuff the place from whence you have taken the bone. Put the
pork down to roast not very close to the fire, but place it nearer when
the skin begins to brown. You can soon baste it with its own gravy; and
see that it is thoroughly cooked, before removing it from the spit.
After taking up the meat, skim the fat from the gravy, and stir in a
little flour to thicken it.
The crackling or skin will be much more crisp and tender if you go all
over it with sweet oil, or lard, before you put it to the fire.
Always accompany roast pork with apple sauce, served in a deep dish or a
sauce-tureen.
Cold roast pork is very good sliced at tea or breakfast.
SWEET POTATO PORK.--Boil, peel, and mash a sufficiency of sweet potatos,
moistened with butter and egg. Cover with them the bottom of a deep
dish; then put on a layer of slices of fresh pork, sprinkled with minced
sage or marjoram. Next, another thick layer of mashed sweet potatos;
then another layer of pork cutlets, and so on till the dish is full,
finishing with mashed sweet potatos. Bake it brown on the surface.
CHESTNUT PORK.--Where the large Spanish chestnuts abound, a similar dish
may be made of layers of chestnuts boiled, peeled, and mashed, and
layers of fresh pork in thin slices.
ROASTED SPARE-RIB.--This will do for a second dish at the table of a
very small family. Rub it all over with powdered sage, pepper, and salt,
and having put it on the spit, lay the thickest end to the fire. Dredge
it with powdered sage and baste it with a little butter. When dished,
have ready some mashed potatos made into flat cakes, and browned on the
top, and laid all round the pork, with some in another dish. Send to
table apple sauce also.
When apples are difficult to procure, substitute dried peaches, stewed
very soft, and in no more water than remains about them after being
washed. Sweeten them while hot, as soon as you take them from the fire,
mashing them smoothly.
TO DRESS A YOUNG PIG.--The pig should not be more than three weeks old.
If not fat, it is unfit to eat. To be in perfection, a sucking pig
should be eaten the day it is killed, or its goodness and tenderness is
impaired every hour. It requires great care in roasting, and constant
watching. The custom of _roasting_ a very young pig has now gone much,
into disuse, it being found that baking answers the purpose equally
well or better, and is far less troublesome.
The pig should be washed perfectly clean, inside and out, and wiped very
dry. Have ready a stuffing made of slices of bread, thickly buttered and
soaked in milk, seasoned with powdered nutmeg and mace, and the grated
yellow rind of a lemon, with the _hard-boiled_ yolk of an egg, crumbled,
and a large handful, or more, of fine bloom raisins, seeded and cut in
half, mix all these ingredients well, and fill with them the body of the
pig, sewing it up afterwards. Or you may make a plain stuffing of
chopped sage and onions, boiled together, with marjoram; and mixed with
bread-crumbs and butter. Having trussed the pig, with the fore-legs bent
back, and the hind-legs forward, rub it _all over_ with sweet oil, or
with fresh butter tied in a rag. Lay it in a baking-pan, with a little
water in the bottom. Then set it in an oven, not too hot, and bake it
well, basting it frequently with butter. When done, dish it whole. Skim
the gravy in the pan, and mix in some flour. Give it one boil up, having
first put into it the chopped liver and heart of the pig, taken out
after it was cooked, and stir in the beaten yolk of an egg.
The practice is now obsolete of dissecting a pig before it goes to
table, splitting it down the back, and down the front, and laying the
two halves in reverse positions, or back to back, with one half the
split head at each side, and one ear at each end, the brains being taken
out to enrich the gravy. All these disgusting things have been discarded
by the better taste of modern epicures. And the pig is baked and comes
to table whole. We have always thought it a most unfeminine fancy for a
lady to enjoy eating the head of any thing, and the brain particularly.
PORK STEAKS, STEWED.--Take some nice fresh pork steaks, cut either from
the leg or the loin. Trim off the superfluous fat. Season them with a
little salt and pepper, and plenty of minced sage. Put in with them,
minced onions, sliced sweet potatos, parsnips, and white potatos cut
into pieces, also some lima beans. Pour in barely sufficient water to
cover them; or else stew the pork in a very little lard. Apples cored,
pared, and baked whole; the core-place filled with sugar, moistened with
a very little water, to put in the bottom of the baking-dish, are a very
nice accompaniment to pork steaks.
PORK AND APPLES.--Take nice steaks, or cutlets, of fresh pork. Season
them with a little pepper, and a very little salt. Pare, core, and
quarter some fine juicy apples. Flavor them with the grated yellow rind
and the juice of one or two lemons, and strew among them plenty of
sugar. Stew them with merely sufficient water to prevent their burning;
or else a little lard without water. When thoroughly done, serve all up
in the same dish. If you cannot procure lemons, flavor the apple with
rose-water, or nutmeg, _after_ it is cooked. Rose-water evaporates much
in cooking.
PORK STEAKS, FRIED.--Cut them thin, but do not trim off the fat.
Sprinkle them well all over with finely minced sage or sweet marjoram.
Lay them in a frying-pan, and fry them well on both sides, keeping them
very hot after they are done. Wash out the frying-pan, (or have another
one ready, which is better,) and put it over the fire with plenty of
lard, or fresh butter. Have ready plenty of slices of large juicy
apples, pared, cored, and cut into round pieces. Fry them well, and when
done, take them up on a perforated skimmer, to drain the lard from them.
Sprinkle them with powdered sugar, and pile them on a dish to eat with
the pork.
Otherwise, send to table with the pork, a dish of apple sauce made in
the usual manner, or a dish of dried peaches, stewed, mashed, and
sweetened.
PORK APPLE POT-PIE.--Make a plentiful quantity of nice paste. With some
of it line the sides (but not the bottom) of a large pot. At the very
bottom lay a slice of _fresh_ pork, with most of the fat trimmed off.
Season it with a very little salt and pepper, and add some pieces of
paste. Next put in a thick layer of juicy apples, cut in slices, strewed
with brown sugar. Add another layer of pork, and another of sliced
apples. Proceed thus till the pot is nearly full, finishing with a lid
of paste, not fitting quite closely. Cut a cross-slit in the top,
through which pour in some sweet cider to moisten it, and set it to
cooking. Keep the pot covered; set it at once over a good fire, but not
so hot as to burn the pie. See that it is well done before you take it
up. It is a convenient dish in the country at the season of apple
picking, cider making, and pork killing.
Stewed or baked apples are always greatly improved by a flavoring of
lemon, rose-water, or nutmeg.
APPLE PORK PIE.--Core, peel, and quarter some fine juicy baking-apples.
Make a nice paste with fresh butter and sifted flour, and line with it
the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Put in the apples, and strew among
them sufficient brown sugar to make them very sweet. If you can obtain a
fresh lemon, pare off very thin the yellow rind, and squeeze the juice
to flavor the apples. Prepare some fresh pork steaks, cut thin, and
divested of all the fat except a little at the edge; removing the bone.
Cover the apples with a layer of meat, and pour in a tea-cup of _sweet_
cider. The contents of the pie should be heaped up in the centre. Have
ready a nice lid of paste, and cover the pie with it, closing and
crimping the edge. In the centre of the lid cut a cross-slit. Put it
into a hot oven and bake it well. This is a farm-house dish, and very
good. Try it.
Apples have always been considered a suitable accompaniment to fresh
pork.
FILLET OF PORK.--Cut a fillet or round, handsomely and evenly, from a
fine leg of fresh pork. Remove the bone. Make a stuffing or forcemeat of
grated bread-crumbs; butter; a tea-spoonful of sweet marjoram, or
tarragon leaves; and sage leaves enough to make a small table-spoonful,
when minced or rubbed fine; all well mixed, and slightly seasoned with
pepper and salt. Then stuff it closely into the hole from whence the
bone was taken. Score the skin of the pork in circles to go all round
the fillet. These circles should be very close together, or about half
an inch apart. Rub into them, slightly, a little powdered sage. Put it
on the spit, and roast it well, till it is thoroughly done throughout;
as pork, if the least underdone, is not fit to eat. Place it, for the
first hour, not very close to the fire, that the meat may get well
heated all through, before the skin begins to harden so as to prevent
the heat from penetrating sufficiently. Then set it as near the fire as
it can be placed without danger of scorching. Keep it roasting steadily
with a bright, good, regular fire, for two or three hours, or longer
still if it is a large fillet. It may require near four hours. Baste it
at the beginning with sweet oil (which will make the skin very crisp) or
with lard. Afterwards, baste it with its own gravy. When done, skim the
fat from the gravy, and then dredge in a little flour to thicken it.
Send the pork to table with the gravy in a boat; and a deep dish of
apple sauce, made very thick, flavored with lemon, and sweetened well.
A fillet of pork is excellent stewed slowly in a very little water,
having in the same stew-pot some sweet potatos, peeled, split, and cut
into long pieces. If stewed, put _no sage_ in the stuffing; and remove
the skin of the pork. This is an excellent family dish in the autumn.
ITALIAN PORK.--Take a nice leg of fresh pork; rub it well with fine salt
and let it lie in the salt for a week or ten days. When you wish to cook
it, put the pork into a large pot, with just sufficient water to cover
it; and let it simmer, slowly, during four hours; skimming it well. Then
take it out, and lay it on a large dish. Pour the water from the pot
into an earthen pan; skim it, and let it cool while you are skinning the
pork. Then put into a pot, a pint of good cider vinegar, mixed with half
a pound of brown sugar, and a pint of the water in which the pork has
been boiled, and from which all the fat has been carefully skimmed off.
Put in the pork with the upper side towards the bottom of the pot. Set
it again over the fire, (which must first be increased,) and heat the
inside of the pot-lid by standing it upright against the front of the
fire. Then cover the pot closely, and let the pork stew for an hour and
a half longer; basting it frequently with the liquid around it, and
keeping the pot-lid as hot as possible that the meat may be well
browned. When done, the pork will have somewhat the appearance of being
coated with molasses. Serve up the gravy with it. What is left of the
meat may be sliced cold for breakfast or luncheon.
You may stew with it, when the pork is put into the pot a second time,
some large chestnuts, previously boiled and peeled. Or, instead of
chestnuts, sweet potatos, scraped, split, and cut into small pieces.
PORK OLIVES.--Cut slices from a fillet or leg of cold fresh pork. Make a
forcemeat in the usual manner, only substituting for sweet herbs some
sage-leaves, chopped fine. When the slices are covered with the
forcemeat, and rolled up and tied round, stew them slowly either in cold
gravy left of the pork, or in fresh lard. Drain them well before they go
to table. Serve them up on a bed of mashed turnips, or potatos, or of
mashed sweet potatos, if in season.
PIGS' FEET, FRIED.--Pigs' feet are frequently used for jelly, instead of
calves' feet. They are very good for this purpose, but a larger number
is required (from eight to ten or twelve) to make the jelly sufficiently
firm. After they have been boiled for jelly, extract the bones, and put
the meat into a deep dish: cover it with some good cider vinegar,
seasoned with sugar and a little salt and cayenne. Then cover the dish,
and set it away for the night. Next morning, take out the meat, and
having drained it well from the vinegar, put it into a frying-pan, in
which some lard has just come to a boil, and fry it for a breakfast
dish.
PORK AND BEANS.--Take a good piece of pickled pork, (not very fat,) and
to each pound of pork allow a quart of dried white beans. The bone
should be removed from the pork, and the beans well picked and washed.
The evening before they are wanted for cooking, put the beans and pork
to soak in _separate pans_; and just before bed-time, drain off the
water, and replace it with fresh. Let them soak all night. Early in the
morning, drain them well from the water, and wash first the beans, and
then the pork in a cullender. Having scored the skin in stripes, or
diamonds, put the pork into a pot with fresh cold water, and the beans
into another pot with sufficient cold water to cook them well. Season
the pork with a little pepper, but, of course, no salt. Boil them
separately and slowly till the pork is thoroughly done (skimming it
well) and till the beans have all burst open. Afterwards take them out,
and drain them well from the water. Then lay the pork in the middle of a
tin pan, (there must be no liquid fat about it) and the beans round it,
and over it, so as nearly to bury it from sight. Pour in a very little
water, and set the dish into a hot oven, to bake or brown for half an
hour. If kept too long in the oven the beans will become dry and hard.
If sufficiently boiled when separate, half an hour will be long enough
for the pork and beans to bake together. Carefully skim off any liquid
fat that may rise to the surface. Cover the dish, and send it to table
hot.
For a small dish, two quarts of beans and two pounds of pork will be
enough. To this quantity, when put to bake in the oven, you may allow a
pint of water.
This is a good plain dish, very popular in New England, and generally
liked in other parts of the country, if properly done.
PORK WITH CORN AND BEANS.--Boil a nice small leg of corned pork, skim it
well, and boil it thoroughly. Then have ready a quart, or more, of fresh
string-beans, each bean cut into only three pieces. Boil the beans for
an hour in a separate pot. In another pot boil four ears of young sweet
corn, and when soft and tender, cut it down from the cob, with a sharp
knife, and mix it with the boiled beans, having drained them, through a
cullender, from all the water that is about them. Having mixed them well
together, in a deep dish, season them with pepper, (no salt,) and add a
large lump of fresh butter.
For green beans you may substitute dried white ones, boiled by
themselves, well drained, and seasoned with pepper and butter, and mixed
in the same dish before they are sent to table. Or the mixed corn and
beans may be heaped round the pork upon the same dish.
To eat with them make some indian dumplings of corn meal and water,
mixed into a stiff dough, formed into thick dumplings, about as large
round as the top of a tea-cup, and boiled in a pot by themselves.
PORK WITH PEAS PUDDING.--Boil a nice piece of pickled or corned pork,
(the leg is the best,) and let it be well skinned, and thoroughly
cooked. To make the pudding, pick over and wash through cold water, a
quart of yellow split peas, and tie them in a square cloth, leaving
barely sufficient room for them to swell; but if too much space is
allowed for swelling, they will be weak and washy. When the peas are all
dissolved into a mass, turn them out of the cloth, and rub them through
a coarse sieve into a pan. Then add a quarter of a pound of fresh
butter, mixed well into the peas, and a very little pepper. Beat light,
three yolks and one whole egg, and stir them into the peas a little at a
time. Then beat the whole very hard. Dip your pudding-cloth into hot
water; spread it out in a pan, and pour the mixture into it. Tie up the
cloth, and put the pudding into a pot of boiling water. Let it boil
steadily for at least an hour. When done, send it to table, and eat it
with the pork.
Next day, if there is much left, boil both the pork and the pudding over
again, (the remains of the pudding tied in the cloth.) Let them boil
till thoroughly warmed throughout. Cut them in slices. Place them on the
same dish, the pork in the middle, with slices of pudding laid round,
and send them to the breakfast table, for strong healthy eaters.
SAUSAGE-MEAT.--To fifteen pounds of the lean of fresh pork, allow five
pounds of the fat. Having removed the skin, sinews, and gristle, chop
both the fat and lean as fine as possible, and mix them well together.
Rub to a powder sufficient sage-leaves to make four ounces when done.
Mix the sage with two ounces of fine salt, two ounces of brown sugar, an
ounce of powdered black pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of cayenne.
Add this seasoning to the chopped pork, and mix it thoroughly. Pack the
sausage-meat down, hard and closely, into stone jars, which must be kept
in a cool place, and well covered. When wanted for use, make some of it
into small flat cakes, dredge them with flour, and fry them well. The
fat that exudes from the sausage-cakes, while frying, will be sufficient
to cook them in.
SAUSAGE DUMPLING.--Make a good paste in the proportion of three mashed
potatos, and a quarter of a pound of finely minced suet to a quart of
flour. Roll it out into a thick sheet. Fill it with the best home-made
sausage meat. Lay the sausage meat in an even heap on the sheet of
dough, and close it up so as to form a large round dumpling. Dip a
square cloth in boiling water, shake it out, dredge it with flour, and
tie the dumpling in it, leaving room for it to swell. Put it into a pot
of boiling water, and keep it boiling hard till thoroughly done. Do not
turn it till immediately before it goes to table. It requires no sauce
but a little cold butter. It may be made into several small dumplings.
VEAL AND SAUSAGE PIE.--Line a deep oval dish with a very nice paste. Lay
at the bottom a thin veal cutlet, seasoned with powdered mace. Place
upon it some of the best sausage meat, spread thin; then another veal
cutlet, and then more sausage. Repeat this till the dish is full,
finishing with sausage meat on the top. Then cover the pie with a rather
thick lid or upper crust, uniting the two edges at the rim, by crimping
or notching them neatly. Make a cross slit in the centre of the lid.
Bake the pie well, and serve it up hot.
Put no water into this pie, as the veal and the sausage will give out
sufficient gravy. We recommend this pie.
If you live where veal cannot always be procured, substitute chicken or
turkey, boiled and cut up, and covered with layers of sausage; or else
thin slices of venison; or else, the best part of a pair of boiled or
roasted rabbits.
BOLOGNA SAUSAGES.--Take three pounds of the lean of a round of corned or
salted beef, and three pounds of the lean of corned or salted pork.
Boil them for an hour in separate pots. Take them up, let them grow
cold, and chop them separately. Chop also, very fine, two pounds of the
fat of bacon, and one pound of beef suet. When these things are all
separately minced, mix them well together, seasoning them well with
chopped sage, sweet marjoram, black pepper, and powdered mace. Also, if
liked, two or three boiled onions minced very small. Have ready some of
the large skins commonly used for these sausages. The skins must have
been carefully emptied, washed, and scraped till quite transparent. Fill
them with the above mixture, stuffing it in hard and evenly with a
sausage-stuffer, sewing and tying both ends securely. Put the sausages
into a brine or pickle, such as is made for ham, of salt, brown sugar,
and molasses mixed with water, and strong enough to bear up an egg. Let
the sausages remain a week in this pickle, turning them every day, and
keeping it closely covered. Then take them out and hang them up to dry,
tied in strings or links. Smoke them for a week over a fire of oak
sticks or corn-cobs. Afterwards, rub them over with salad oil, which is
much the better for being mixed with ashes of vine twigs.
Sausages made faithfully as above, will be found equal to the real
Bologna, by the lovers of this sort of relish. When it is eaten they are
sliced very thin. Few ladies eat them.
HOG'S HEAD CHEESE.--Hog's head cheese is always made at what is called
"killing time." To make four cheeses of moderate size, take two large
hog's heads; two sets, (that is eight feet,) and the noses of all the
pigs that have been killed that day. Clean all these things well, and
then boil them to rags. Having drained off the liquid through a
cullender, spread out the things in large dishes, and carefully remove
all the bones, even to the smallest bits. With a chopper mince the meat
as fine as possible, and season it well with pepper, salt, sage, and
sweet marjoram, adding some powdered mace. Having divided the prepared
meats into four equal parts, tie up each portion tightly in a clean
coarse cloth, and press it into a compact cake, by putting on heavy
weights. It will be fit for use next day. In a cool dry place it will
keep all winter. It requires no farther cooking, and is eaten sliced at
breakfast, luncheon, or supper. If well made, and well seasoned with the
herbs and spices, it will be found very nice for a relish.