SAUSAGE-MEAT.--To fifteen pounds of the lean of fresh pork, allow five pounds of the fat. Having removed the skin, sinews, and gristle, chop both the fat and lean as fine as possible, and mix them well together.
Rub to a powder sufficient sage-leaves to make four ounces when done.
Mix the sage with two ounces of fine salt, two ounces of brown sugar, an ounce of powdered black pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of cayenne.
Add this seasoning to the chopped pork, and mix it thoroughly. Pack the sausage-meat down, hard and closely, into stone jars, which must be kept in a cool place, and well covered. When wanted for use, make some of it into small flat cakes, dredge them with flour, and fry them well. The fat that exudes from the sausage-cakes, while frying, will be sufficient to cook them in.
SAUSAGE DUMPLING.--Make a good paste in the proportion of three mashed potatos, and a quarter of a pound of finely minced suet to a quart of flour. Roll it out into a thick sheet. Fill it with the best home-made sausage meat. Lay the sausage meat in an even heap on the sheet of dough, and close it up so as to form a large round dumpling. Dip a square cloth in boiling water, shake it out, dredge it with flour, and tie the dumpling in it, leaving room for it to swell. Put it into a pot of boiling water, and keep it boiling hard till thoroughly done. Do not turn it till immediately before it goes to table. It requires no sauce but a little cold b.u.t.ter. It may be made into several small dumplings.
VEAL AND SAUSAGE PIE.--Line a deep oval dish with a very nice paste. Lay at the bottom a thin veal cutlet, seasoned with powdered mace. Place upon it some of the best sausage meat, spread thin; then another veal cutlet, and then more sausage. Repeat this till the dish is full, finishing with sausage meat on the top. Then cover the pie with a rather thick lid or upper crust, uniting the two edges at the rim, by crimping or notching them neatly. Make a cross slit in the centre of the lid.
Bake the pie well, and serve it up hot.
Put no water into this pie, as the veal and the sausage will give out sufficient gravy. We recommend this pie.
If you live where veal cannot always be procured, subst.i.tute chicken or turkey, boiled and cut up, and covered with layers of sausage; or else thin slices of venison; or else, the best part of a pair of boiled or roasted rabbits.
BOLOGNA SAUSAGES.--Take three pounds of the lean of a round of corned or salted beef, and three pounds of the lean of corned or salted pork.
Boil them for an hour in separate pots. Take them up, let them grow cold, and chop them separately. Chop also, very fine, two pounds of the fat of bacon, and one pound of beef suet. When these things are all separately minced, mix them well together, seasoning them well with chopped sage, sweet marjoram, black pepper, and powdered mace. Also, if liked, two or three boiled onions minced very small. Have ready some of the large skins commonly used for these sausages. The skins must have been carefully emptied, washed, and sc.r.a.ped till quite transparent. Fill them with the above mixture, stuffing it in hard and evenly with a sausage-stuffer, sewing and tying both ends securely. Put the sausages into a brine or pickle, such as is made for ham, of salt, brown sugar, and mola.s.ses mixed with water, and strong enough to bear up an egg. Let the sausages remain a week in this pickle, turning them every day, and keeping it closely covered. Then take them out and hang them up to dry, tied in strings or links. Smoke them for a week over a fire of oak sticks or corn-cobs. Afterwards, rub them over with salad oil, which is much the better for being mixed with ashes of vine twigs.
Sausages made faithfully as above, will be found equal to the real Bologna, by the lovers of this sort of relish. When it is eaten they are sliced very thin. Few ladies eat them.
HOG"S HEAD CHEESE.--Hog"s head cheese is always made at what is called "killing time." To make four cheeses of moderate size, take two large hog"s heads; two sets, (that is eight feet,) and the noses of all the pigs that have been killed that day. Clean all these things well, and then boil them to rags. Having drained off the liquid through a cullender, spread out the things in large dishes, and carefully remove all the bones, even to the smallest bits. With a chopper mince the meat as fine as possible, and season it well with pepper, salt, sage, and sweet marjoram, adding some powdered mace. Having divided the prepared meats into four equal parts, tie up each portion tightly in a clean coa.r.s.e cloth, and press it into a compact cake, by putting on heavy weights. It will be fit for use next day. In a cool dry place it will keep all winter. It requires no farther cooking, and is eaten sliced at breakfast, luncheon, or supper. If well made, and well seasoned with the herbs and spices, it will be found very nice for a relish.
LIVER PUDDINGS.--Boil some pigs" livers, and when cold mince them, adding some cold ham or bacon, in the proportion of a pound of liver to a quarter of a pound of fat bacon. Add also some boiled pigs" feet, allowing to each pound of liver four pigs" feet boiled, skinned, boned, and chopped. Season with pepper, powdered mace or nutmeg, and sweet herbs, (sweet basil and marjoram.) Put the mixture (packed hard,) into straight-sided tin or white ware pans, and cover them with a clean cloth. Put heavy weights on the top. Cover them also with folded brown paper, and set them in a cool dry place. They will be fit to eat next day. Slice them thick, and send them to the tea or breakfast table. Or you may fill with the mixture, some nicely cleaned and very transparent sausage skins, (of a large size,) and tie up the ends with coa.r.s.e brown thread, to be removed before going to table.
You may cut them into large pieces, and broil them, or fry them in lard.
Calves" liver makes still nicer puddings.
Keep liver puddings in flat stone jars.
Never use newspaper to cover or wrap up any thing eatable. The black always rubs off, and the copperas in the printing ink is very poisonous.
HAM, etc.
BRINE FOR PICKLING MEAT.--To every four gallons of water allow four pounds of fine salt, two ounces of saltpetre, three pounds of brown sugar, and two quarts of West India mola.s.ses. Boil the whole together, stirring it well, and skimming it after stirring. When clear, let it cool. The meat being clean and dry, rub it all over with ground red pepper. Then put as much meat into the pickling-tub as can be very well covered by the brine, which must be poured on cold. Let it remain six weeks in the pickle, (carefully taking off the sc.u.m,) and turning each piece every day. Afterwards, hang it till it is dry outside, and then smoke it well for a fortnight, hanging it high above the fire with the large end downward. The fire in the smoke-house should be steadily kept up all the time. Hickory or oak is the best wood for this purpose. On no account use pine, cedar, spruce, or hemlock. They will communicate to the meat a strong taste of turpentine, and render it uneatable. A fire made of corn-cobs is excellent for smoking meat, and they should be saved for that purpose. When the meat is smoked, rub it all over with ground pepper to prevent insects, and sew up all the pieces in new cotton cloths, coa.r.s.e and thick, and then white-wash them. We have seen ham-covers, painted with flowers and gilded. Since California, gilding pervades the land.
This pickle will be found excellent for hams, bacon, tongues, or beef.
Meat for pickling must be very fresh, and of excellent quality. Before sewing it up in covers see that it is free from insects. If to go to sea, pack in boxes of powdered charcoal for a long voyage. For a short one, barrels of wood-ashes will do.
TO CURE HAMS.--To make good hams the pork must be of the best quality.
No animal tastes so much of its food as the pig. In America, we consider a pig "killed off the slop" as unfit to eat; and so he is. All our pigs are kept up in a pen, and fattened with Indian corn, or corn meal, for several weeks previous to killing. A hundred pounds of corn meal, (mixed with water to about the consistency of very thick mush,) is said to be equal in fattening pigs to two hundred pounds of dry-sh.e.l.led corn. They should be kept up, and well fed for eight weeks; and occasionally, in the country, where such fruits are superabundant, the pigs should have a regale of melons, peaches, &c. This we have seen, and the pork was, of course, very fine. The hams or hind-quarters are considered the most valuable part of the animal. They are cured in various modes. But the Newbold receipt has. .h.i.therto been the most popular. Mr. Newbold was a Pennsylvania farmer. The following directions, we believe, are authentic.
For one hundred pounds of fine pork, take seven pounds of coa.r.s.e salt, five pounds of brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, half an ounce of pearlash, and four gallons of water. Boil all together, and skim the pickle when cold. Pour it on the meat. Let hams or tongues remain in the pickling-tub eight weeks. Before it is smoked, hang it up and dry it two or three days. Three weeks will be sufficient for pickling beef.
Previous to sewing the hams in cases, rub them all over with ground black pepper.
Soap-suds given frequently to pigs, when kept up to fatten, will greatly promote their health.
BOILED HAM.--Having soaked a fine ham from early in the evening till near bed-time, putting it into warm water, and changing that water about ten or eleven o"clock--wash and brush it well in the morning, and trim it so as to look nicely all over. Lay at the bottom of the ham-boiler a bed of nice fresh hay, which will greatly improve the flavor. Let the hock bone be sawed off short. A long shank bone looks very awkward.
Place the ham upon the hay--pour in plenty of cold water, and keep it simmering very slowly an hour before you allow it to boil. Then increase the heat gradually, and keep the ham boiling steadily for four, five, or six hours, according to its size and age. An old ham requires more soaking and boiling than a new one. Skim it frequently after the boiling begins. It will be much improved by transferring it to a spit, (having taken off the whole skin,) and roasting the ham, for the last two or three hours, basting it with its own essence. Save the skin to cover the cold ham, and keep it fresh. Before it goes to table cover the ham with grated bread-crumbs, sifted on so as to form a slight crust.
If the ham is to be eaten cold, and is intended for company, brush it all over with beaten yolk of egg. Then dredge on sufficient grated crumbs to form a crust half an inch thick, and finish by going all over it with cream. Set it to brown in an oven, or put it on the spit of a roaster. When cold, this glazing will be found surpa.s.singly fine.
Decorate the hock with white paper, handsomely cut, or with a bunch of flowers cut out of vegetables.
Carve a ham in very thin slices--if cut thick, they have not the same taste, besides looking ungenteelly.
BAKED HAM.--For baking, take a small ham, or part of a large one, trimmed and made of good shape, cutting away whatever looks unsightly.
Have the bone sawed off at the knuckle, or end of the hock. The evening previous to cooking, lay the ham in soak in a large pan of hot water. At bed-time pour off the water, and renew it. Keep it closely covered all night. In the morning wash and brush it well. Make a coa.r.s.e paste of coa.r.s.e flour mixed with water only, and roll it out about an inch thick.
Line a clean iron bake-oven with this, and put in the ham, reserving enough of paste to cover the top. Pour in a very little water, merely sufficient to keep the ham from burning. Put on the lid of paste, and having wet the edges slightly press them together, so as to unite closely the top and bottom crust. Bake it over a steady fire, from four to five or six hours, or more, according to its size. When done, skim the gravy, remove the paste, (which is of no farther use,) and take off the skin of the ham. Dredge it all over with finely grated bread-crumbs, before it goes to table. A ham can scarcely be cooked too much, and too slow. The general fault is in cooking them too little, and too fast. A ham of the smallest size will require at least four hours baking or boiling, even after it has been all night in soak. Save the skin whole, to cover the cold ham when it is put away in the pantry.
When a cooked ham is nearly all used up, take what remains, cut it all off from the bone, and stew the bits in a little water, till they are all to rags. You will find the essence an improvement to gravies, strained from the fragments.
MADEIRA HAM.--This is a dish only seen at dinner parties. No one can believe, for a moment, that hams really cooked in Madeira wine are served up every week at hotels, particularly at those houses where there is no other superfluity, and where most of the great dishes exist only in the bill of fare. A genuine Madeira ham is cooked as follows:--Take a ham of the very finest sort; should be a Westphalia one. Lay it in hot water, and soak it all day and all night, changing the water several times, and every time washing out the pan. Early in the morning of the second day, put the ham into a large pot of cold water, and boil it slowly during four hours, skimming it well. Then take it out, remove the skin entirely, and put the ham into a clean boiler, with sufficient Madeira wine to cover it well. Boil, or rather stew it, an hour longer, keeping the pot covered except when you remove the lid to turn the ham.
When well stewed take it up, drain it, and strain the liquor into a porcelain-lined saucepan. Have ready a sufficiency of powdered white sugar. Cover the ham all over with a thick coating of the sugar, and set it into a hot oven to bake for an hour.
Mix some orange or lemon-juice with the liquor adding plenty of sugar and nutmeg. Give it one boil up over the fire, and serve it up in a tureen, as sauce to the ham.
What is left of the ham may be cut next day into small pieces, put into a stew-pan, with the remains of the liquor or sauce poured over it, and stewed for a quarter of an hour or more. Serve it up all together in the same dish. While it is on the fire, add a little b.u.t.ter to the stew.
BROILED HAM.--Ham for broiling or frying should be cut into thin slices the evening before, trimmed, and laid in a pan of boiling water, which, near bed-time, should be changed for cold water, and very early in the morning for boiling water, in which it should lie half an hour to soak still longer. If ham is not well soaked previously, it will, when broiled or fried, be disagreeably hard and salt; the salt frying out to the surface and forming a rough unpleasant crust, which will create thirst in the eaters for hours after. Much of the salt of a ham goes off in boiling, but if it is _not_ boiled or soaked, the salt comes out to the surface and there it sticks. The slices being cut thin and nicely trimmed, they should be broiled on a very clean gridiron over a clear fire, and so well done that they incline to curl up at the edges. Dish them hot, and lay on every slice a very small bit of fresh b.u.t.ter, and sprinkle them with pepper.
FRIED HAM.--Ham for frying need not be _quite_ so thin as for broiling.
Put but little b.u.t.ter in the frying-pan, as their own fat is generally sufficient to cook them. Break an egg over the middle of each slice, and let it cook till the white is set, and the yolk appears round and yellow through it. Before it goes to table trim off nicely the discolored and ragged edges of the fried eggs. They look disgusting when left on.
Cold ham is excellent for broiling or frying, and very nice without any further cooking. Send it to table strewed with either nasturtion flowers, pepper-gra.s.s, or parsley. All these things have a fine flavor of their own, especially nasturtions.
NICE FRIED HAM.--Having scalded and soaked some nice ham, cut it into rather thick slices, and then cut these slices into mouthfuls or little narrow slips. Put them into a hot frying-pan, and fry them well. When done, season them with pepper and nutmeg, and serve them up in their own gravy. It will be an improvement to add a beaten egg just before they go to table.
You may add to the ham some bits of cold boiled chicken, pulled in little slips, from the breast, and fried with the ham, adding a little fresh b.u.t.ter.
SLICED HAM.--Slice very thin some cold boiled ham, and let the slices be nearly of the same size and appearance, making them look as handsome as you can. Cover them with fresh green pepper-gra.s.s at a summer breakfast or tea-table; and decorate the pepper-gra.s.s by interspersing with it some nasturtion flowers, which are very nice to eat, having a taste agreeably and slightly pungent. Pepper-gra.s.s and nasturtions, are very appetizing accompaniments to nice bread and b.u.t.ter.