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PORK AND BACON. IO9 |
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To Bake Quarters of Pig,—Wash the meat nicely, cut the skin lengthwise and crosswise into small squares and rub it with pepper and salt. If approved a little dust of dried sage; put it in the oven with a little water and lard and bake it brown.
Roast Sucking Pig.—Put a sucking pig, as soon as it is killed, in a basin of hot, but not boiling water for 2 minutes, then rub off the hairs with a cloth; if they do not come off easily put the pig in the water for 1 minute more; make a slit down the belly, take out the entrails, clean and singe the pig and steep it in cold water for 24 hours; after which drain and dry it thoroughly with a cloth. Make stuffing as follows: Chop a large onion together with about a dozen sage leaves, blanch the whole in boiling water for 5 minutes, drain and put in a stew pan with a good spoonful of butter, stir over the fire and simmer for 10 minutes, then add a cupful or more of bread crumbs; season with salt and pepper, mix thoroughly and fill the inside of the pig with the stuffing, sew it up with fine twine, truss the legs and back and put the pig in the spit to roast before a clear fire, basting it with butter or salad oil. When the pig is done take it off the spit, put it on a dish and serve with approved sauce in a boat.
To Dress Pig's Fry.—One and one-half pound of pig's fry, 2 onions, a few sage leaves2, 2 pounds of potatoes ; pepper and salt to taste. Put the lean fry at the bottom of a pie dish, sprinkle over it some minced sage and onion and a seasoning of pepper and salt; sliced potatoes; put a layer of these in the seasoning, then the fat fry, then more seasoning and a layer of potatoes at the top; fill the dish with boiling water and bake for 2 hours, or rather longer; cook rather more than 2 hours.
To Boil a Gammon, or Boiling Ham, or any Salted or Smoked Meat, as Neat's Tongue, Hog's Cheeks, &c—Set on a kettle of water, put in 3 or 4 handfuls of hay flowers, cloves, or any sweet grass green leaves of Indian corn, or the husks ; or if you cannot get them green, hay tied up in a coarse bag or cloth will do. By this means the meats will be of a much finer color, more tender, short and mellow.
An old ham should be soaked several hours before boiling, and after being skimmed paint the top with yolks of well beaten eggs ; sift over finely pulverized cracker and bread crumbs evenly, or cover over a thin coat of Irish potatoes, straining through a colander; bake in a moderate oven 1-2 hour; skin the ham or not, as you may fancy. If the skin remains, with a sharp knife you can cut the skin in diamond shapes, then fill it with grated yolks of hard boiled eggs, or grated beets or carrots; trim the dish with parsley or the tops of eel-. ery. If the ham be skinned stick it with cloves in diamond shapes, |
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