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The names
of the various pieces are –
In
England.
Fore
Quarter: - Spare Rib – Hand – Belly or Spring. Hind Quarter: - Fore Loin –
Hind Loin, which, if too long, a spare rib may be cut off – Leg.
In
Scotland.
Spare Rib
– Breast and Shoulder – Sirloin – The Ham or Gigot.
The
entrails are named the Liver, Crow, Kidney Skirts, sometimes called the
Harslet, also the Chitterlings or Guts.
PREPARATORY REMARKS ON PORK.
Dairy-fed
Pork is the best; the flesh should look white and smooth, and the fat be
white and fine. In preparing a Hog for bacon, the ribs are cut, with a
very little flesh on them, from the side, which has the fore and hind leg
attached to it; the hind leg is then called a gammon of bacon, but it is
generally reserved for a ham. On each side there is a large spare rib,
which is usually divided into two, one called the sweet bone, the other
the blade bone. There are also griskins, chine, or back bone.
Hog’s
Lard is the inner fat of the bacon hog.
Porkers
are not so old as Hogs; they make excellent pickled pork, but are chosen
more particularly for roasting.
To roast
a Leg, a small onion is minced together with three sage leaves, seasoned
with pepper and salt, and put under the skin at the knuckle bone; the skin
is cut into strips nearly half an inch apart, and rubbed over with a bit
of butter. If weighing seven or eight pounds, it will require nearly three
hours to roast.
A Spare
Rib should be roasted, is basted with butter, and has sage leaves, dried,
rubbed to a powder, and mixed with salt and pepper, sprinkled over it.
Both a
Loin and Neck are jointed, the skin scored in narrow strips, and rubbed
with butter. If weighing six or seven pounds, it will require rather more
than two hours to roast.
A Chine
is stuffed here and there with bread crumbs, mixed with a little butter,
and seasoned with some finely-shred parsley, and thyme, some pepper and
salt. The skin is cut into strips, and rubbed with butter; it is them
roasted, and served with apple sauce, as are also the preceding roasts.
A
Porker’s Head is stuffed like a sucking pig, sewed firmly, and hung on a
string to roast.
The
Shoulder may be roasted, but, being very fat, it is generally preferred
pickled.
The
Breast may be made into a pie, or broiled.
WESTPHALIA HAM.
Rub each
ham well with an ounce and a half of pounded saltpetre, and an equal
quantity of course brown sugar. The following day, boil, in a quart of
strong stale beer or porter, a pound of bay salt, the same of common salt,
half a pound of coarse brown sugar, of pounded black pepper and cloves an
ounce each, and a small bit of sal prunella. Pour it boiling hot over the
ham, and let it lie a fortnight, rubbing and turning it twice or thrice
daily, when it should be smoked a fortnight.
TO
CURE HAMS.
Sprinkle
a ham, weighing eighteen pounds or upwards, with a little common salt, and
let it lie a day; then rub it well with one ounce of ground black pepper,
and one ounce of pounded saltpetre. Let it lie another day, then rub in a
pound of bay, and a pound of common salt. In two hours, pour over it a
pound of treacle, and let it lie for three weeks or a month, according to
the size of the ham, turning and rubbing it daily. Let it lie in cold
water for four-and-twenty hours, then hang it for a fortnight up a chimney
where wood or turf is burnt.
ANOTHER WAY TO CURE HAMS.
To each
ham allow the following ingredients, finely pounded: - One pound of bay,
and half a pound of common salt, two ounces of saltpetre, and one ounce of
black pepper. Rub the mixture well into the ham, turning it daily for four
days, and then pour over it one pound and a half of treacle, and let it
lie for four weeks, turning it daily, and basting it frequently with the
pickle. Lay it for four-and-twenty hours into cold water. Smoke it for a
fortnight, and bury it with malt dust in a box. It ought to be kept three
or four months before it is used, and should not be soaked before boiling.
ANOTHER WAY TO CURE HAMS.
For two
hams, weighing sixteen pounds each, allow one pound and a quarter of brown
sugar, three ounces of powdered saltpetre, one pound of bay salt, the same
of common salt, two or three heads of garlic pounded. Mix all together,
and rub it into the hams; let them lie for three or four weeks, turning
and rubbing them daily, when they may be dried in the kitchen, or smoked
for a fortnight.
ANOTHER WAY TO CURE HAMS.
Pound two
ounces of saltpetre, one ounce of black pepper, and one pound of bay salt.
Rub it over the ham, and let it lie four days, turning it daily; then pour
over it a pound and a half of treacle. Baste it daily for a month, then
put it in cold water for twenty-four hours. Wipe it dry, and sew it in a
piece of old linen. Hang it up in a chimney where wood is burnt.
ANOTHER WAY TO CURE HAMS.
For two
hams, boil, in one quart of strong beer, one pound and a quarter of common
salt, three ounces of saltpetre, one pound and a quarter of coarse brown
sugar. When it is cold, pour it over the hams, rub them well daily,
basting them more frequently. Let them remain for three weeks, and then
smoke them.
When hams
which have been hung up are not keeping well, they must be returned to
their pickle, and allowed to remain till required for use.
HAM
WITH MADEIRA.
Soak in
water for two hours a Bayonne or any other fine ham; boil it for two
hours, trim it quickly, and then put it into a stew-pan, with thin slices
of veal at the bottom; add some carrots and parsley, and season with
spices. Pour over the ham a pint of rich stock and a bottle of Madeira;
let it boil for two hours, strain and skim the fat off the sauce, which,
with the ham, must be served quite hot.
TO
BOIL A HAM.
When the
ham is not to be soaked, wash it well in warm water, and scrub it clean;
pare off any rusty part, and trim it neatly. Put it on in a large pot,
with plenty of lukewarm water, and let it simmer for four or five hours.
Take off the skin as whole as possible; sift over the ham bread raspings
and a very little pounded sugar, and set it before the fire for two or
three minutes, and put a fringe of white paper round the knuckle. The skin
may be laid over the ham, when cold, to keep it moist.
TO
COLLAR A PIG’S CHEEK.
Strew
over a pig’s face, and a neat’s or pig’s tongue, a little salt and
saltpetre; let it stand eight or nine days, then boil them with two
cow-heels, till all be sufficiently tender to admit of the bones being
taken out; lay upon a dish a piece of strong cloth, put the cheek upon it
with the rind downwards; season it highly with black and Jamaica pepper,
cloves, and a little salt; add the tongue and cow-heels, with more
seasoning; roll and sew it up firmly, put it into a jar and boil it for
two hours, then press it with a heavy weight, and when cold take off the
cloth. The cow-heel may be omitted, and both cheeks used.
TO POT
PIG’S HEAD.
Split the
head of a small pig, take out the brains, cut off the ears, and let it lie
in cold water for one day; then boil it till all the bones come out; take
off the skin, keeping it as whole as possible. Chop the tongue and all the
meat while it is hot; season it highly with pepper, salt, and nutmeg;
place part of the skin at the bottom of a potting-pan or bowl, lay in the
chopped meat, and put the rest of the skin over the top; press it down
hard, place a small plate upon it, put on that a heavy weight, which must
not be taken off till it be perfectly cold. Boil up part of the liquor
with some vinegar and salt, and keep the head in this pickle. It may be
served for breakfast or luncheon, and is eaten with vinegar and mustard.
TO
MAKE SAUSAGES.
Take a
pound of the inward fat of the pig, and half a pound of lean pork; pick
both clean from skin and sinews, mince them very finely, grate a large
nutmeg, take its weight of pounded mace and cloves, and the largest
proportion mace, the weight of all of black pepper, and twice the weight
of the spices of salt; chop finely a few sage leaves and a little lemon
thyme; mix all well together with two large table-spoonfuls of grated
bread and the yolk of an egg beaten. It may be put into skins, or packed
into a jar and tied closely with bladder. When to be used, moisten it with
the yolk of an egg beaten, make it up in the form of sausages, flour them,
and fry them in butter.
ANOTHER WAY TO MAKE SAUSAGES.
Chop
together two pounds of lean pork, and one and a half of the inward fat of
the pig, the crumb of a penny loaf cut into slices and soaked in cold
water; season with pepper, salt, grated nutmeg, lemon thyme, and a little
sage. Mix all the ingredients well, and half fill the skins; boil them
half an hour.
SPEADBURY’S SAUSAGES.
Cut from
the leg or griskin one pound of nice lean pork, free from sinews and skin;
mince it very finely; mince one pound of the best beef suet, mix it with
the pork, and pound it as finely as possible in a marble mortar; add two
large table-spoonfuls of stale bread rubbed through a sieve, also a good
deal of black pepper, salt, and a little finely-chopped sage; mix all
together with the yolks of two eggs beaten up. It will keep for some time,
if put into an earthen jar and pressed closely down. When it is to be
used, make it into rolls, as thick as common sausages, and three or four
inches long; dust them with a little flour; have ready a frying-pan made
very hot, and fry them without any thing but their own fat, till they are
done quite through, taking care not to make them too dry. By breaking one
of them, the cook will know whether they are sufficiently done. They may
be fried in lard or fresh beef dripping.
TO
CURE PIG’S CHEEK.
Strew
salt over it, and let it lie for two or three days, then pour over it the
following mixture when it is cold: - Half a pound of bay salt, half an
ounce of saltpetre, a quarter of a pound of coarse brown sugar, one
handful of common salt, and a pennyworth of cochineal, boiled in a pint of
strong beer or porter; let it lie in the pickle a fortnight, turning it
daily, then hang it to smoke for a week. When it is to be dressed, put it
into lukewarm water to soak for a night, and in dressing it, follow the
directions given for boiling hams.
TO
CURE PIGS’ TONGUES.
Cut off
the root, and rub them well with brown sugar; the following day, rub into
them a quarter of a pound of common salt, half an ounce of saltpetre, and
two ounces of bay salt; turn them daily. In a week or ten days they may be
used. This quantity will salt six or eight pigs’ tongues.
TO
DRESS PIGS’ KIDNEYS AND SKIRTS.
Clean and
wash them very nicely; cut the kidneys across, and the skirts into small
square bits; fry them a light brown in beef dripping; brown a bit of
butter the size of a walnut, required of gravy, and an onion minced small.
Add the meat, a little pepper, salt, and mushroom catsup, and let it stew
till tender.
TO
COLLAR A SMALL ROASTING PIG.
Cut off
the feet, head, and tail; bone and wash it well, and dry it in a cloth.
Season it highly with a quantity of black pepper and salt; roll it up
firmly, and bind it with a piece of linen; sew it tightly. Put it on in
boiling water, with the bones, let it boil for an hour, then put it under
a weight to press till it be cold, and take off the cloth.
HAM
TOASTS.
Grate
some lean ham; mix with it the beaten yolk of an egg, and some pepper; fry
it in clarified butter, put it on square bits of toast, and brown it with
a salamander.
SOUSED
PIG’S HEAD AND FEET.
Clean
them extremely well, and boil them; take for sauce part of the liquor, and
add vinegar, lime or lemon juice, salt, cayenne, black and Jamaica pepper;
put in, either cut down or whole, the head and feet; boil all together for
an hour, and pour it into a deep dish. It is eaten cold with mustard and
vinegar.
TO
ROAST A SUCKING PIG.
To kill
the pig, stick it just above the breast bone, running the knife into the
heart; plunge it for a minute or two into cold water; rub it over with
resin beaten exceedingly fine – it is sometimes rubbed with its blood
before the resin is put on; dip it into a pail of scalding water, take it
out and rub off all the hair as quickly as possible; if it should not all
come off, repeat the scalding and rubbing with resin. When quite clean,
wash it in warm, and frequently in cold water. Cut off the feet at the
first joint; take out all the entrails; put the pettitoes, heart, liver,
and lights together. Wash the pig well in cold water, and dry it
thoroughly. Make a stuffing of grated bread, butter, a small onion, and
three or four sage leaves minced; season with pepper and salt, put it
inside and sew it up. The pig being made perfectly dry, put the
well-beaten white of an egg all over it with a feather. Put it down to
roast before a very quick fire, and under it a small basin to catch the
gravy. Do not flour it, and be sure to cover it well with the egg, which
will crisp it nicely, and make it of a delicate light brown. It will take
from one to two hours to roast. When done, cut off the head; part it and
the body down the middle; mix with the chopped brains a little
finely-minced boiled sage and some melted butter, add to it the gravy that
has run from the pig, also mix with the stuffing some melted butter. Lay
the pig on the dish, placing the shoulder of the one side to the hind
quarter of the other. Observe, in roasting the pig, to skewer the legs
back, so that the under part may be crisp. A pig prepared as above may be
baked.
HAM
AND EGGS.
Cut some
ham into thin slices, and broil them on a gridiron. Fry some eggs in
butter. Serve it, laying an egg on each slice of ham.
PIG’S
HARSLET.
Parboil
the liver and light; slice and fry them along with thin bits of bacon.
Garnish with fried parsley.
PICKLED LEG OF PORK.
Salt it
eight or ten days; turn and rub it daily. Before being dressed, let it lie
in cold water for half an hour; put in on in cold water; when it boils,
take off the scum, and let it simmer till done. If weighing seven or eight
pounds, it will take nearly three hours to boil. Serve with peas-pudding
and boiled greens. About two or three pounds of pickled pork will require
to be simmered for an hour and a half.
PORK
STEAKS.
Cut them
off a neck or loin; trim them neatly, and pepper them; broil them over a
clear fire, turning them frequently; they will take twenty minutes.
Sprinkle them with a little salt before serving.
BLACK
PUDDINGS.
Throw a
little salt into the blood while it is warm, and stir it till it become
cold; boil in milk, till quite tender, two quarts of half grits. When
nearly cold, put in the inward fat of the pig cut into pieces the size of
a small nutmeg; season with pepper, salt, cloves, and mace; of herbs,
parsley, sweet marjoram, winter savory, pennyroyal, and leeks, all finely
minced. Mix them with the grits and fat, and add a sufficiency of the
blood to make it of a dark colour. The skins or guts must be very well
washed, and when perfectly cleansed, laid into salt and water the night
before. When they are to be filled, tie one end, and turn the inside out;
half fill them; tie them of equal lengths or in rounds, put them into hot
water, and when they have boiled five minutes, take them out, prick them
with a large needle, and then boil them half an hour. When they are cold,
hang them up in a cool dry place.
ANOTHER WAY TO MAKE BLACK PUDDINGS.
Prepare
the blood as before directed, and to a pint and a half allow six ounces of
rice boiled in a quart of milk till it be tender, and the grated crumb of
a half-quartern loaf. Season with black pepper, salt, cloves, and mace; of
herbs, parsley, savory, pennyroyal, a little sage and onion, all finely
minced; one pound of beef suet chopped very fine, a small quantity of the
inward fat of the pig finely cut, and four eggs well beaten and strained.
Mix all these ingredients together, and stir in the blood. Divide it into
three puddings, and boil them in pudding-cloths floured. When they are to
be used, heat them whole in a Dutch oven, or cut them into slices, and
broil them upon a gridiron; or they may be put into the skins.
TO
DRESS THE BLOOD OF PIGS, CALVES, OR LAMBS WITHOUT SKINS.
Cut an
onion in small dice, and put it into a sauce-pan on a stove, or on the
fire, with a bit of butter or hog’s lard; when it is done, put in the
blood, season it with pepper and salt, and stir gently on the fire as
buttered eggs are done.
A
COLLAR OF BRAWN.
Wash,
crape, and clean very thoroughly a large pig’s head, feet, and ears; lay
them into salt and water, with a little saltpetre, for three hours. To
make the collar larger, boil two ox-heels, with the head, feet, and ears,
till all the bones can be taken out easily; then put the head round the
mould, and the feet and small pieces into the middle; put it together
while hot, and press it with a heavy weight till it become cold. Boil for
half an hour, in as much of the liquor as will cover the brawn, one
handful of salt, one ounce of pepper, black and white mixed, and one or
two bay leaves. When cold, pour it over the brawn.
MOCK
BRAWN.
Take the
blade bone out of the shoulder, and boil it gently two hours or more,
according to the age of the boar. When it is cold, season it very highly
with black pepper, cayenne, salt, a very little allspice, minced onion,
and thyme. Let it lie a night in this seasoning; the following day, make a
savoury forcemeat of pounded veal, ham, beef suet, minced parsley, thyme,
and an onion, a little lemon-peel, salt, nutmeg, white pepper, and
cayenne; bind it with an egg beaten, and stuff where the bone has been
taken out. Put it into a deep pan with the brown side downwards, and lay
under it twigs or small sticks, to keep it from sticking to the bottom;
pour in a bottle of beer, and put it into the oven. When nearly done, take
it out and clear off all the fat; add a bottle of Madeira and the juice of
a large lemon, return it to the oven, and bake it till it become as tender
as a jelly, so that a straw will pierce it easily. If the boar is an old
one, it will require to be baked six or seven hours. This dish is eaten
hot.
TO
STEW PIGS’ FEET.
Clean
them well, and boil them till they are tender. Brown some butter with
flour, and add it to a quantity of gravy or water sufficient to stew the
feet in. Season with a minced onion, three sage leaves, salt, and black
and Jamaica pepper. Cut the feet into two, add them, and cover the pan
closely; let them stew half an hour. A little before serving, mix in half
a table-spoonful of lemon pickle or vinegar, and pick out the sage leaves.
PETTITOES.
Parboil
them, with the liver, heart, and lights; mince the liver, heart, and
lights small; simmer it in some gravy or a little of the water, with a bit
of butter mixed with flour. Season with pepper, salt, and one or two sage
leaves minced; and having split the feet into two, add them, and when they
become tender, mix in a tea-spoonful of vinegar. Serve the mince with the
pettitoes upon it, and garnish with sippets of bread.
PORK
CHEESE.
Choose
the head of a small pig which may weigh about twelve pounds the quarter.
Sprinkle over it and the tongues of four little pigs, a little common salt
and a very little saltpetre. Let them lie four days, wash them, and tie
them in a clean cloth. Boil them until the bones will come easily out of
the head; take off the skin as whole as possible, place a bowl in hot
water and put in the head, cutting it into small pieces. In the bottom of
a round tin, shaped like a small cheese, lay two strips of cloth across
each other – they must be long enough to fold over the top when the shape
is full; place the skin round the tin, and nearly half fill it with the
meat, which has been highly seasoned with black pepper, cayenne, and salt;
put in some tongue cut into slices, then the rest of the meat and the
remainder of the tongue; draw the cloth tightly across the top, put on it
a board or a plate that will fit into the shape, and place on it a heavy
weight, which must not be taken off till it be quite cold. It is eaten
with vinegar and mustard, and served for luncheon or supper.
TO
STEW A HAM.
Soak the
ham in lukewarm water for twelve hours; drain it, and scrape the rind; put
it into a stew-pan with some slices of fat bacon round the sides, four
quarts of weak stock, a good deal of parsley, a bunch of sweet herbs, six
large onions, four carrots, a little allspice and black pepper, a pint of
Madeira, and one of port wine. Cover the ham with slices of fat bacon, and
put over it a sheet of white paper; stew it eight hours, or ten if it be a
very large ham. Before serving, take off the rind, strain the sauce, skim
it well, and boil it till reduced to a glaze, and it round the ham; or
serve it with any other sauce that may be preferred.
TO
PREPARE THE FAT OF BACON FOR LARDING.
Cut the
fat from the pork; rub it with salt, allowing one pound of salt to every
ten pounds of lard. Put it in a cellar on a board, laying one piece upon
another, put a board on the top, and stones upon the board to firm the
lard; when it has lain at least a fortnight in salt, hang it up in a dry
place.
BACON.
For one
side of a large pig, allow one pound of coarse common salt, the same
quantity of coarse brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, and two of rock
salt finely pounded. Mix them well, and rub it on both sides of the pork,
and when all is rubbed in, then lay it upon a wooden table placed
slopingly, and put on it a board and weight. Place under it a vessel to
catch the brine. Turn it once in two or three days, and baste it with the
brine. Let it remain in this way for three weeks, and then hang it up to
smoke for twenty-four hours, which will be a sufficient length of time, if
the smoke is powerful. |
