Common Sense in the Household 22

Common Sense in the Household 22

STEWED PORK.

 

Take some lean slices from the leg, or bits left from trimming the

various pieces into shape. Cut into dice an inch square, put into

a pot with enough cold water to cover them, and stew gently for

three-quarters of an hour, closely covered. Meanwhile parboil half a

dozen Irish potatoes, cut in thick slices, in another vessel. When

the pork has stewed the allotted time, drain off the water from these

and add to the meat. Season with pepper, salt, a minced shallot, a

spoonful of pungent catsup, and a bunch of aromatic herbs. Cover again,

and stew twenty minutes longer, or until the meat is tender throughout.

 

If your meat be not too fat, this stew will be very good, especially on

a cold day.

 

You can stew cutlets in the same way.

 

 

PIG’S HEAD (_Roasted_).

 

Take the head of a half-grown pig; clean and split it, taking out the

brains and setting these aside in a cool place. Parboil the head in

salted water, drain off this, wipe the head dry, and wash all over with

beaten egg; dredge thickly with bread-crumbs, seasoned with pepper,

sage, and onion, and roast, basting twice with butter and water; then

with the liquor in which the head was boiled; at last with the gravy

that runs from the meat. Wash the brains in several waters until

they are white; beat to a smooth paste, add one-quarter part fine

bread-crumbs, pepper, and salt; make into balls, binding with a beaten

egg; roll in flour and fry in hot fat to a light brown. Arrange about

the head when it is dished. Skim the gravy left in the dripping-pan,

thicken with brown flour, add the juice of a lemon, and boil up once.

Pour it over the head.

 

 

PIG’S HEAD WITH LIVER AND HEART (_Stewed_).

 

Clean and split the head, taking out the brains and setting aside.

Put the head in a pot with water enough to cover it and parboil it.

Have ready another pot with the liver and heart, cut into inch-long

pieces, stewed in just enough water to keep them from scorching. When

the head is half-done, add the entire contents of the second vessel to

the first, and season with salt, pepper, a little onion, parsley, and

sage. Cover and stew until the head is very tender, when take it out

and lay it in the middle of a flat dish. With a perforated skimmer

remove the liver and heart and spread about the head, surrounding, but

not covering it. Strain the gravy and return to the pot, thicken with

brown flour, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and drop in carefully

force-meat balls of the brains, prepared according to the foregoing

receipt and fried a light brown. Boil once and pour about the head,

arranging the balls upon it, to cover the split between the two sides

of the head.

 

You may improve this dish, which is very savory, by boiling a couple of

pigs’ feet with the head until the meat will slip from the bones. Take

them from the liquor, cut off and chop the meat, and put into the large

pot when you add the liver, etc.

 

 

SOUSE OF PIGS’ EARS AND FEET.

 

Clean the ears and feet well; cover them with cold water slightly

salted, and boil until tender. Pack in stone jars while hot, and cover

while you make ready the pickle. To half a gallon of good cider vinegar

allow half a cup of white sugar, three dozen whole black peppers, a

dozen blades of mace, and a dozen cloves. Boil this one minute, taking

care that it really boils, and pour while hot over the still warm feet

and ears. It will be ready to use in two days, and will keep in a cool,

dry place two months.

 

If you wish it for breakfast, make a batter of one egg, one cup of

milk, salt to taste, and a teaspoonful of butter, with enough flour for

a thin muffin-batter; dip each piece in this, and fry in hot lard or

dripping. Or dip each in beaten egg, then in pounded cracker, before

frying.

 

Souse is also good eaten cold, especially the feet.

 

 

HEAD CHEESE. (OR SOUSE.)

 

This is made of the head, ears and tongue. Boil them in salted water

until very tender. Strip the meat from the bones and chop fine. Season

with salt, pepper, sage, sweet marjoram, a little powdered cloves,

and half a cup of strong vinegar. Mix all together thoroughly, taste

to see that it is flavored sufficiently, remembering that the spice

tends to keep it, and pack hard in moulds or bowls, interspersing the

layers with bits of the tongue cut in oblongs, squares and triangles

not less than an inch in length. Press down and keep the meat in shape

by putting a plate on the top of each mould (first wetting the plate)

and a weight upon this. In two days the cheese will be ready for use.

Turn out from the shapes as you wish to use it; or, should you desire

to keep it several weeks, take the cheese from the moulds and immerse

in cold vinegar in stone jars. This will preserve it admirably, and

you have only to pare away the outside, should it be too acid for your

taste.

 

This is generally eaten cold for tea, with vinegar and mustard; but it

is very nice cut in slices, seasoned slightly with mustard, and warmed

in a frying-pan with enough butter to prevent burning. Or, you may dip

in beaten egg, then cracker-crumbs, and fry for breakfast.

 

If the tongue is arranged judiciously the slices will be prettily

marbled.

 

 

PORK POT-PIE.

 

You can make this of lean pork cut from any part of the pig, but

the chine is best. Crack the bones well, and cut up the chine into

_riblettes_ two inches long. Line your pot, which should be round at

the bottom and well greased, with a good light paste; put in the meat,

then a layer of parboiled potatoes, split in half, seasoning with

pepper and salt as you go on. When the pot is nearly full, pour in a

quart of cold water and put on the upper crust, cutting a small round

hole out of the middle, through which you can add hot water should the

gravy boil away too fast. Slips of paste may also be strewed among

the meat and potatoes. Put on the pot-lid, and boil from one hour and

a half to two hours. When done, remove the upper crust carefully, turn

out the meat and gravy into a bowl, that you may get at the lower. Lay

this upon a hot dish, put the meat, etc., in order upon it, pour the

gravy over it, and cover with the top crust. This can be browned with a

red-hot shovel, or oven-lid.

 

 

CHESHIRE PORK-PIE.

 

Cut two or three pounds of lean fresh pork into strips as long and as

wide as your middle finger. Line a buttered dish with puff-paste; put

in a layer of pork seasoned with pepper, salt, and nutmeg or mace;

next a layer of juicy apples, sliced and covered with about an ounce

of white sugar; then more pork, and so on until you are ready for the

paste cover, when pour in half a pint of sweet cider or wine, and stick

bits of butter all over the top. Cover with a thick lid of puff-paste,

cut a slit in the top, brush over with beaten egg, and bake an hour and

a half.

 

This is an English dish, and is famous in the region from which it

takes its name. It is much liked by those who have tried it, and is

considered by some to be equal to our mince-pie.

 

Yorkshire pork-pie is made in the same way, with the omission of the

apples, sugar, and nutmeg, and the addition of sage to the seasoning.

 

 

SAUSAGE (_No. 1_).

 

6 lbs. lean fresh pork.

3 lbs. fat fresh pork.

12 teaspoonfuls powdered sage.

6 teaspoonfuls black pepper.

6 teaspoonfuls salt.

2 teaspoonfuls powdered mace.

2 teaspoonfuls powdered cloves.

1 grated nutmeg.

 

Grind the meat, fat and lean, in a sausage-mill, or chop it very fine.

The mill is better, and the grinding does not occupy one-tenth of

the time that chopping does, to say nothing of the labor. One can be

bought for three or four dollars, and will well repay the purchaser.

Mix the seasoning in with your hands, taste to be sure all is right,

and pack down in stone jars, pouring melted lard on top. Another good

way of preserving them is, to make long, narrow bags of stout muslin,

large enough to contain, each, enough sausage for a family dish. Fill

these with the meat, dip in melted lard, and hang from the beams of the

cellar.

 

If you wish to pack in the intestines of the hog, they should be

carefully prepared as follows: Empty them, cut them in lengths, and lay

for two days in salt and water. Turn them inside out, and lay in soak

one day longer. Scrape them, rinse well in soda and water, wipe, and

blow into one end, having tied up the other with a bit of twine. If

they are whole and clear, stuff with the meat; tie up and hang in the

store-room or cellar.

 

These are fried in the cases, in a clean, dry frying-pan, until

brown. If you have the sausage-meat in bulk, make into small, round

flat cakes, and fry in the same way. Some dip in egg and pounded

cracker—others roll in flour before cooking. Their own fat will cook

them. Send to table dry and hot, but do not let them fry hard. When one side is done, turn the other. The fire should be very brisk. Ten minutes, or twelve at the outside, is long enough to cook them.