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PORK AND BACON 107 |
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sauce, carrot sauce, bread sauce and tomato sauce are occasionally used. A pig will take about 2 hours to roast. When the eyes start from the head it is done enough. The pig may be roasted in a paper bag that has been well greased with beef drippings. Before roasting, meat that has been frozen should be soaked 2 or 3 hours or longer ia cold water, and will require a longer time to roast.
N. B.—Do not attempt to thaw it before the fire, or you will never be able to roast it perfectly afterward. Squeeze in it a little lemon juice, and put in a sprinkle of salt and a little cayenne pepper, which should be on the table. Roasting was the ancient manner of dressing meat.
Roast Pig.—Kill your pig the evening previous or very early in the morning of your wanting it to cook. Scrape, singe and wash it several times in cold water, changing it as often ; then cut the feet off at the first joint. The heart, liver and feet should be put in a pot or a pan to stew. Fill the body with a rich stuffing, as for turkey or goose, or with Irish potatoes mashed fine while hot, after boiling or steaming them, which should be highly seasoned with salt, pepper, lard or butter (1 spoonful each). After fastening the legs together, sew the body up and rub it well with salt and pepper all over. Put it in a tin roaster before a hot fire, turn it frequently, and now and then rub it with lard or butter tied up in a piece of muslin, in order to make the skin crisp all over. If you wish you can suspend it before the fire with a string tied to a strong nail, and under it place a stew-pan or skillet to catch the gravy. The feet cut up and the heart and liver chopped very fine, should be boiled in clear water with a few sage leaves. Take thern up and lay them on a sieve and season highly; form a paste of butter and flour and stir it in, and cook until tender, then take the dripping in the pan or skillet and thicken it with flour and give it a boil up. Serve for gravy in a sauce tureen.
Roast Ham —Soak in lukewarm water a ham, the night before you bake it. Four or six hours before you wish to serve it set it in an oven or before a moderate fire in a tin kitchen or roasting-pan, turn the spit frequently and let it roast 2 hours. Then take it up on a dish or pan and remove the skin nicely. Scrape all the fat off the baking pan and let it bake 2 or 3 hours longer, basting it often with the gravy in the bottom of the pan. When it is done, take the ham up on a dish. It should be brown. Put the gravy in a saucepan, stir 1 tablespoonful of flour in a teacup of water, pour it in the same and boil up. Serve this in a sauce tureen. This is excellent for cold lunch, well peppered, with cider.
Fried Eggs and Bacon.—This is an old-fashioned and handy |
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