Home Pork Making Part 13

HASHED.

Parboil the liver, chop it fine and put it into a hot frying pan with just enough of the liquor it was boiled in to moisten it so it won't be hard and dry. When hot, season with salt, pepper and b.u.t.ter, and serve with mashed potato. Or you can chop cold boiled potatoes with the liver and make a regular hash of it if preferred.--[R. L.

_Heart._

STUFFED.

Take three hearts, remove the ventricles and dividing wall, wash and wipe out dry. Fill with 3 tablespoons chopped ham, 4 tablespoons bread crumbs, a little melted b.u.t.ter, some pepper and salt; beat up an egg and mix the meat, etc., with as much of the egg as is needed to bind it together. Tie each heart in a piece of cloth and boil three hours, or till tender, in salt and water. Remove the cloths carefully, so as to keep the dressing in place, rub them over with b.u.t.ter and sprinkle with a little flour, and brown in a brisk oven. Reduce the liquor and thicken it. Serve with mashed potatoes and apple jelly.

BOILED.

Make a biscuit dough rather stiff, sprinkle a well-cleaned heart over with a little pepper and salt, roll the heart securely in the biscuit dough, wrap all in a clean white cloth and sew or baste together loosely, then put in a kettle of hot water and boil about four hours. Serve hot by removing cloth and slicing.

_Sausage._

SAUSAGE WITH DRIED BEEF.

To 10 lbs. meat allow 5 tablespoons salt, 4 of black pepper, 3 of sage, and 1/2 tablespoon cayenne. Some persons prefer to add a little ginger, thinking that it keeps the sausage from rising on the stomach. Mix the spices thoroughly through the meat, which may be put into skins or muslin bags and hung in a cold, dry place, or partly cooked and packed in jars with a covering of lard. Every housekeeper uses fried and baked sausages, but sausage and dried beef is a more uncommon dish. Cut the sausage into small pieces, put it into a stewpan with water to cover, and put on to cook. Slice the dried beef and tear it into small pieces, removing fat and gristle, and put into the stew pan. When done, thicken slightly with flour, season and stir an egg quickly into it. Don't get the gravy too thick and don't beat the egg--it wants to show in little flakes of white and yellow.--[Rosalie Williams.

SAUSAGE ROLLS.

Make a rich pie paste, roll out thin and cut, with a large cooky cutter or a canister lid, large discs of the paste. Take a small cooked sausage, and placing it on the edge of the circle of paste, roll it up and pinch the ends together. Bake in a quick oven and serve hot or cold.

WITH CABBAGE.

Put some pieces of fat and lean pork through the sausage mill; add a finely chopped onion, pepper, salt and a dash of mace. Cut a large, sound head of cabbage in two, scoop out the heart of both halves and fill with sausage meat; tie up the head securely with stout twine, put into salted water sufficient to cover the cabbage, and boil one hour and a half. Drain thoroughly and save the liquid, which should not exceed one cupful in all.

Brown a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter over a hot fire, stir in a teaspoon of browned flour and add the liquid; pour over cabbage and serve hot.

GOOD SAUSAGE.

This sausage recipe has been proved good. Take 30 lbs. pork and 12 oz.

salt, 2 oz. pepper, 2 oz. sage. Put sage in a pan and dry in oven, then sift. You can add two ounces of ground mustard if you wish. Add 2 or 3 lbs. sugar, mix all together, salt, pepper, etc., and mix with meat before it is chopped. After it is well mixed, cut to your liking.

_Fresh Pork._

CUTLETS.

Cut them from a loin of pork, bone and trim neatly and cut away most of the fat. Broil fifteen minutes on a hot gridiron, turning them three or four times, until they are thoroughly done but not dry. Dish, season with pepper and salt and serve with tomato sauce or with small pickled cuc.u.mbers as a garnish.

BREADED CUTLETS.

A more elaborate dish is made by dipping the cutlets into beaten egg seasoned to taste with salt, pepper and sage, then into rolled cracker or bread crumbs. Fry slowly till thoroughly done, and serve with mashed potatoes.

CUTLETS FROM COLD ROAST PORK.

Melt an ounce of b.u.t.ter in a saucepan, lay in the cutlets and an onion chopped fine, and fry a light brown; then add a dessertspoon of flour, half a pint of gravy, pepper and salt to taste, and a teaspoon each of vinegar and made mustard. Simmer gently a few minutes and serve.

PORK CHOPS.

The white meat along the backbone (between the ribs and ham) is not always sufficiently appreciated, and is often peeled from the fat, cut from the bones and put into sausage, which should never be done, as it is the choicest piece in the hog to fry. Leave fat and lean together, saw through the bone, fry or broil. The meat gravy should be served in a gravy boat.

BREADED PORK CHOPS.

Cut chops about an inch thick, beat them flat with a rolling pin, put them in a pan, pour boiling water over them, and set them over the fire for five minutes; then take them up and wipe them dry. Mix a tablespoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper for each pound of meat; rub each chop over with this, then dip, first into beaten egg, then into crackers, rolled, as much as they will take up. Fry in hot lard.

BARBECUED PORK.

Put a loin of pork in a hot oven without water, sprinkle with flour, pepper and salt, baste with b.u.t.ter, cook two or three hours, or until very brown. Pour in the gravy half a teacup of walnut catsup. Serve with fried apples.

_Roast Pig._

SUCKING PIG.

Scald carefully and sc.r.a.pe clean, wipe dry, chop off the toes above first joint, remove entrails, and although some cook head entire, it is not advisable. Remove brains, eyes, upper and lower jaws, leaving skin semblance of head, with ears thoroughly sc.r.a.ped and cleaned. Make a dressing composed of one large boiled onion chopped, powdered sage, salt, pepper, 4 cups stale bread crumbs, a bit of b.u.t.ter, and all mixed with well-beaten eggs. Stuff the body part with this. St.i.tch it up. Previously boil the heart in salted water and stuff this into the boneless head skin to preserve its shape and semblance. Place it down on its feet, head resting on front feet, hind legs drawn out, just as you want it to lie on the platter when served or sent to table. Roast three hours, constantly basting.

TO ROAST WHOLE.

A pig ought not to be under four nor over six weeks old, and ought to be plump and fat. In the city, the butcher will sell you a shoat already prepared, but in the country, we must prepare our own pig for roasting. As soon as the pig is killed, throw it into a tub of cold water to make it tender; as soon as it is perfectly, cold, take it by the hind leg and plunge into scalding water, and shake it about until the hair can all be removed, by the handful at a time. When the hair has all been removed, rub from the tail up to the end of the nose with a coa.r.s.e cloth. Take off the hoofs and wash out the inside of the ears and nose until perfectly clean.

Hang the pig up, by the hind legs, stretched open so as to take out the entrails; wash well with water with some bicarbonate of soda dissolved in it; rinse again and again and let it hang an hour or more to drip. Wrap it in a coa.r.s.e, dry cloth, when taken down, and lay in a cold cellar, or on ice, as it is better not to cook the pig the same day it is killed. Say kill and clean it late in the evening and roast it the next morning.

Prepare the stuffing of the liver, heart and haslets, stewed, seasoned and chopped fine. Mix with these an equal quant.i.ty of boiled Irish potatoes, mashed, or bread crumbs, and season with hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine, parsley and sage, or thyme, chopped fine, pepper and salt. Scald the pig on the inside, dry it and rub with pepper and salt, fill with the stuffing and sew up. Bend the forelegs under the body, the hind legs forward, and skewer to keep in position. Place in a large baking pan and pour over it one quart of boiling water. Rub fresh b.u.t.ter all over the pig and sprinkle pepper and salt over it, and put a bunch of parsley and thyme, or sage, in the water. Turn a pan down over it and let it simmer in a hot oven till perfectly tender. Then take off the pan that covers the pig, rub it with more b.u.t.ter and let brown, basting it frequently with the hot gravy. If the hot water and gravy cook down too much, add more hot water and baste.

When of a fine brown, and tender and done all through, cover the edges of a large, flat china dish with fresh green parsley and place the pig, kneeling, in the center of the dish. Place in its mouth a red apple, or an ear of green corn, and serve hot with the gravy; or serve cold with grated horse-radish and pickle. Roast pig ought to be evenly cooked, through and through, as underdone pork of any kind, size or age is exceedingly unwholesome. It ought also to be evenly and nicely browned on the outside, as the tender skin when cooked is crisp and palatable. It is easily scorched, therefore keep a pig, while roasting, covered till tender and almost done.

_Tongue._

The tongues should be put into the pickle with the hams; boil after three or four weeks, pickle in vinegar which has been sweetened. Add a tablespoon ground mustard to a pint of vinegar. Will keep months. They should be pickled whole. Also nice when first cooked without pickling.

Slice cold, to be eaten with or without mayonnaise dressing. Sliced thin, and placed between thin slices of bread, make delicious sandwiches.

Chopped fine, with hard-boiled eggs and mayonnaise, make nice sandwiches.

Many boil pork and beef tongues fresh. An old brown tongue is an abomination. The saltpeter gives the pink look canned tongues have; the salt and sugar flavor nicely.

When fresh, tongues are nice for mince pies. They may be corned with the hams and boiled and skinned and hot vinegar seasoned with salt and pepper poured over them; or are nice sliced with cold potatoes, garnished with cress or lettuce and a cream salad dressing poured over them. Cream salad dressing: Stir thoroughly together 1 teaspoon sugar, six tablespoons thick sweet cream and 2 tablespoons vinegar, salt and pepper or mustard to taste. The cream and vinegar should be very cold, and the vinegar added to the cream a little at a time, or it will curdle. Stir till smooth and creamy.

_Souse._