From choice, take the heart of a prime Scot or well-fed heifer, and
hang it in a current of dry air for a week, but if it should be a
fine large one, and you are in doubt as to its age and probability as
to tenderness, ten days or more in hard weather will not be too long
to keep it. Clean it well from the coagulated blood in the cavities,
ventricles, and wipe the outside with salt and water and sponge. Then
take
Bay or rock salt 6 oz.
Coarse sugar 6 oz.
Sal prunelle ½ oz.
Water 1 quart
Bay leaves, powdered ½ oz.
Laurel leaves, shred ½ oz.
Boil these a quarter of an hour, skimming well. Put the meat, the small
end downwards, in a deep straight-sided vessel, that will just more
than contain it, and add to it six large onions sliced and fried brown,
with some sweet lard; also
Powdered sage 1 oz.
Black pepper, ground ½ oz.
Fine salt 2 oz.
and pour the liquor, nearly scalding hot, upon all these, covering
close with brown paper tied over; thus let it remain forty-eight
hours, if a moderate sized one, and sixty hours if a large one. Next
take it out and wipe dry, and fill all the hollows, of which there are
four, with the following stuffing:
Fried onions 1 lb.
Bay salt, fine powder 1 oz.
Allspice, fine powder 1 oz.
White pepper, fine powder ½ oz.
Olive oil 3 oz.
And having pressed this into all parts accessible, make the “deaf ears”
secure, that the stuffing does not come out, by sewing thin leather or
bladder over the base of the heart, and hang it up, point downwards,
in your chimney, and smoke it three weeks. When boiled and got cold
properly, it will be a nice relishing article at a trifling expense.
Beech chips, with oak dust and fern, or short grass, will be the proper
fuel.