ADDITIONAL HINTS ON DRESSING.
Little use of the knife is required to loosen the entrails. The fingers, rightly used, will do most of the severing. Small, strong strings, cut in proper lengths, should be always at hand to quickly tie the severed ends of any small intestines cut or broken by chance. An expert will catch the entire offal in a large tin pan or wooden vessel, which is held between himself and the hog. Unskilled operators, and those opening very large hogs, need an a.s.sistant to hold this. The entrails and then the liver, heart, etc., being all removed, thoroughly rinse out any blood or filth that may have escaped inside. Removing the lard from the long intestines requires expertness that can be learned only by practice. The fingers do most of this cleaner, safer and better than a knife. A light feed the night before killing leaves the intestines less distended and less likely to be broken.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 14. SIMPLE SUPPORT FOR DRESSED HOG.]
HOW TO CUT UP A HOG.
With a sharp ax and a sharp butcher"s knife at hand, lay the hog on the chopping bench, side down. With the knife make a cut near the ear clear across the neck and down to the bone. With a dextrous stroke of the ax sever the head from the body. Lay the carca.s.s on the back, a boy holding it upright and keeping the forelegs well apart. With the ax proceed to take out the chine or backbone. If it is desired to put as much of the hog into neat meat as possible, trim to the chine very close, taking out none of the skin or outside fat with it. Otherwise, the cutter need not be particular how much meat comes away with the bone. What does not go with the neat meat will be in the offal or sausage, and nothing will be lost.
Lay the chine aside and with the knife finish separating the two divisions of the hog. Next, strip off with the hands the leaves or flakes of fat from the middle to the hams. Seize the hock of the ham with the left hand and with the knife in the other, proceed to round out the ham, giving it a neat, oval shape. Be very particular in shaping the ham. If it is spoiled in the first cutting, no subsequent tr.i.m.m.i.n.g will put it into a form to exactly suit the fastidious public eye. Trim off the surplus lean and fat and projecting pieces of bone. Cut off the foot just above the hock joint. The piece when finished should have nearly the form of a regular oval, with its projecting handle or hock.
With the ax cut the shoulder from the middling, making the cut straight across near the elbow joint. Take off the end ribs or "spare bone" from the shoulder, trim the piece and cut off the foot. For home use, trim the shoulder, as well as the other pieces, very closely, taking off all of both lean and fat that can be spared. If care is taken to cut away the head near the ear, the shoulder will be at first about as wide as long, having a good deal of the neck attached. If the meat is intended for sale and the largest quant.i.ty of bacon is the primary object, let the piece remain so. But if it is preferred to have plenty of lard and sausage, cut a smart strip from off the neck side of the shoulder and make the piece a.s.sume the form of a parallelogram, with the hock attached to one end.
Trim a slice of fat from the back for lard, take off the "short ribs,"
and, if preferred, remove the long ribs from the whole piece. The latter, however, is not often done by the farmers. Put the middling in nice shape by tr.i.m.m.i.n.g it wherever needed, which, when finished, will be very much like a square in form, perhaps a little longer than broad, with a small circular piece cut out from the end next the ham.
The six pieces of neat meat are now ready for the salter. The head is next cut open longitudinally from side to side, separating the jowl from the top or "head," so-called. The jawbone of the jowl is cut at the angle or tip and the "swallow," which is the larynx or upper part of the windpipe, is taken out. The headpiece is next cut open vertically and the lobe of the brain is taken out, and the ears and nose are removed.
The bone of the chine is cut at several places for the convenience of the cook, and the task of the cutter is finished. Besides the six pieces of neat meat, there are the chine, souse, jowl, head, fat, sausage, two spare and two short ribs and various other small bits derived from each hog. A good cutter, with an a.s.sistant to carry away the pieces and help otherwise, can cut out from 50 to 60 hogs in a day.
CHAPTER VI.
WHAT TO DO WITH THE OFFAL.
Aside from the pieces of meat into which a hog is usually cut, there will be left as offal the chine or backbone, the jowl, the souse, the liver and lungs, pig"s feet, two spareribs and two short ribs or griskins. Nearly every housekeeper knows what disposition to make of all this, yet too often these wholesome portions of the hog are not utilized to best advantage.
PORK SAUSAGE.
Sausage has formed a highly prized article of food for a good many hundred years. Formed primarily as now, by chopping the raw meat very fine, and adding salt and other flavoring materials, and often meal or bread crumbs, the favorite varieties of to-day might not be considered any improvement over the recipes of the ancient Romans were they to pa.s.s judgment on the same. History tells us that these early Italian sausages were made of fresh pork and bacon, chopped fine, with the addition of nuts, and flavored with c.u.min seed, pepper, bay leaves and various pot herbs. Italy and Germany are still celebrated for their bologna sausages and with many people these smoked varieties are highly prized.
Like pure lard, sausage is too often a scarce article in the market. Most city butchers mix a good deal of beef with the pork, before it is ground, and so have a sausage composed of two sorts of meat, which does not possess that agreeable, sweet, savory taste peculiar to nice fresh pork.
The bits of lean, cut off when tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the pieces of neat meat, the tenderloins, and slices of lean from the shoulders and hams, together with some fat, are first washed nicely, cleared of bone and sc.r.a.ps of skin, then put into the chopper, and ground fine. If a great deal of sausage is wanted, the neat meat is trimmed very close, so as to take all the lean that can be spared from the pieces. Sometimes whole shoulders are cut up and ground. The heads, too, or the fleshy part, make good sausage. Some housekeepers have the livers and "lights," or lungs, ground up and prepared for sausage, and they make a tolerable subst.i.tute. This preparation should be kept separate from the other, however, and be eaten while cold weather lasts, as it will not keep as long as the other kind.
After sausage is properly ground, add salt, sage, rosemary, and red or black pepper to suit the taste. The rosemary may be omitted, but sage is essential. All these articles should be made fine before mixing them with the meat. In order to determine accurately whether the sausage contains enough of these ingredients, cook a little and taste it.
If sausage is to be kept in jars, pack it away closely in them, as soon as it is ground and seasoned, and set the jars, securely closed, in a cool room. But it is much better to provide for smoking some of it, to keep through the spring and early summer. When the entrails are ready, stuff them full with the meat, after which the ends are tied and drawn together, and the sausage hung up in the smokehouse for smoking. This finishes the process of making pork sausage. Put up in this way, it deserves the name of sausage and it makes a dish good enough for any one. It is one of the luxuries of life which may be manufactured at home.
BOLOGNA SAUSAGE.
The popular theory is that these familiar sausages originated in the Italian city of that name, where the American visitor always stops for a bit of "the original." Many formulas are used in the preparation of bologna sausages, or rather many modifications of a general formula. Lean, fresh meat tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs are employed and some add a small proportion of heart, all chopped very fine. While being chopped, spices and seasoning are added, with a sufficient quant.i.ty of salt. The meat employed is for the most part beef, to which is added some fresh or salted pork. When almost completed, add gradually a small quant.i.ty of potato flour and a little water. The mixture being of the proper consistency, stuff in beef casings, tie the ends together into rings of fair length and smoke thoroughly. This accomplished, boil until the sausages rise to the top, when they are ready for use. Some recipes provide for two parts of beef and one part of fat pork and the addition of a little ground coriander seed to the seasoning.
WESTPHALIAN SAUSAGES
are made in much the same manner as frankforts, chopped not quite so fine, and, after being cased, are smoked about a week.
FRANKFORT SAUSAGES.
Clean bits of pork, both fat and lean, are chopped fine and well moistened with cold water. These may be placed in either sheep or hog casings through the use of the homemade filler shown on another page.
SUABIAN SAUSAGES.
Chop very finely fat and lean meat until the ma.s.s becomes nearly a paste, applying a sprinkling of cold water during the operation. Suabian sausages are prepared by either smoking or boiling, and in the latter case may be considered sufficiently cooked when they rise to the surface of the water in which they are boiled.
ITALIAN PORK SAUSAGES.
The preparation of these requires considerable care, but the product is highly prized by many. For every nine pounds of raw pork add an equal amount of boiled salt pork and an equal amount of raw veal. Then add two pounds selected sardines with all bones previously removed. Chop together to a fine ma.s.s and then add five pounds raw fat pork previously cut into small cubes. For the seasoning take six ounces salt, four ounces ground pepper, eight ounces capers, eight ounces pistachio nuts peeled and boiled in wine. All of these ingredients being thoroughly mixed, add about one dozen pickled and boiled tongues cut into narrow strips. Place the sausage in beef casings of good size. In boiling, the sausages should be wrapped in a cloth with liberal windings of stout twine and allowed to cook about an hour. Then remove to a cool place about 24 hours.
TONGUE SAUSAGE.
To every pound of meat used add two pounds of tongues, which have previously been cut into small pieces, mixing thoroughly. These are to be placed in large casings and boiled for about an hour. The flavor of the product may be improved if the tongues are previously placed for a day in spiced brine. Pickled tongues are sometimes used, steeped first in cold water for several hours.
BLACK FOREST SAUSAGES.
This is an old formula followed extensively in years gone by in Germany.
Very lean pork is chopped into a fine ma.s.s and for every ten pounds, three pounds of fat bacon are added, previously cut comparatively fine.
This is properly salted and spiced and sometimes a sprinkling of blood is added to improve the color. Fill into large casings, place over the fire in a kettle of cold water and simmer without boiling for nearly an hour.
LIVER SAUSAGE.
The Germans prepare this by adding to every five pounds of fat and lean pork an equal quant.i.ty of ground rind and two and one-half pounds liver.
Previously partly cook the rind and pork and chop fine, then add the raw liver well chopped and press through a coa.r.s.e sieve. Mix all thoroughly with sufficient seasoning. As the raw liver will swell when placed in boiling water, these sausages should be filled into large skins, leaving say a quarter of the s.p.a.ce for expansion. Boil nearly one hour, dry, then smoke four or five days.
ROYAL CAMBRIDGE SAUSAGES
are made by adding rice in the proportion of five pounds to every ten pounds of lean meat and six pounds of fat. Previously boil the rice about ten minutes, then add gradually to the meat while being chopped fine, not forgetting the seasoning. The rice may thus be used instead of bread, and it is claimed to aid in keeping the sausages fresh and sweet.
BRAIN SAUSAGES.
Free from all skin and wash thoroughly the brain of two calves. Add one pound of lean and one pound of fat pork previously chopped fine. Use as seasoning four or five raw grated onions, one ounce salt, one-half ounce ground pepper. Mix thoroughly, place in beef casings and boil about five minutes. Afterward hang in a cool place until ready for use.
TOMATO SAUSAGES.
Add one and one-half pounds pulp of choice ripe tomatoes to every seven pounds of sausage meat, using an addition of one pound of finely crushed crackers, the last named previously mixed with a quart of water and allowed to stand for some time before using. Add the mixture of tomato and cracker powder gradually to the meat while the latter is being chopped.