Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book Part 14

Pork must be thoroughly cooked; done well, and completely to the very bone. Who ever asked for a slice of pork _done rare_? Who could eat pork with the blood appearing, when served? So it is with veal. Underdone veal, or underdone chicken, is not to be thought of without disgust.

Pork, for boiling, is always previously salted or corned. Fresh pork, however, is very good _stewed_ or cooked slowly in a very little water, and with plenty of vegetables in the same pot. The vegetables should be potatos, (either sweet or white,) pared and cut into pieces--parsnips the same, or yams in thick slices. For corned pork cook the vegetables separately from the meat, or they will taste too salt and fat. They should be cabbage, or green sprouts, green beans or peas, green corn, young poke, squash, pumpkin, or cashaw, (winter squash,) boiled, mashed, and squeezed.

For salt pork, in winter, have dried beans or dried peas; first boiled, and then baked.

TO ROAST PORK.--The roasting pieces are the loin, the leg, the saddle, the fillet, the shoulder and the spare-rib, (which last is found between the shoulder or fore-leg,) and the griskin or back-bone. All roast pork should be well seasoned; rubbed with pepper, salt, or powdered sage or marjoram. Score the skin with a sharp knife, making deep lines at regular distances, about an inch apart. Cross these lines with others, so as to form squares or diamonds. Make a stuffing of minced sage or marjoram leaves; bread-crumbs; if liked, a very little minced onion previously boiled; and some powdered mace. Introduce this stuffing profusely wherever it can be inserted, loosening a piece of the skin, and fastening it down again with a small skewer. In a leg or shoulder you can put in a great deal at the knuckle. In a fillet or large end of the leg, stuff the place from whence you have taken the bone. Put the pork down to roast not very close to the fire, but place it nearer when the skin begins to brown. You can soon baste it with its own gravy; and see that it is thoroughly cooked, before removing it from the spit.

After taking up the meat, skim the fat from the gravy, and stir in a little flour to thicken it.

The crackling or skin will be much more crisp and tender if you go all over it with sweet oil, or lard, before you put it to the fire.

Always accompany roast pork with apple sauce, served in a deep dish or a sauce-tureen.

Cold roast pork is very good sliced at tea or breakfast.

SWEET POTATO PORK.--Boil, peel, and mash a sufficiency of sweet potatos, moistened with b.u.t.ter and egg. Cover with them the bottom of a deep dish; then put on a layer of slices of fresh pork, sprinkled with minced sage or marjoram. Next, another thick layer of mashed sweet potatos; then another layer of pork cutlets, and so on till the dish is full, finis.h.i.+ng with mashed sweet potatos. Bake it brown on the surface.

CHESTNUT PORK.--Where the large Spanish chestnuts abound, a similar dish may be made of layers of chestnuts boiled, peeled, and mashed, and layers of fresh pork in thin slices.

ROASTED SPARE-RIB.--This will do for a second dish at the table of a very small family. Rub it all over with powdered sage, pepper, and salt, and having put it on the spit, lay the thickest end to the fire. Dredge it with powdered sage and baste it with a little b.u.t.ter. When dished, have ready some mashed potatos made into flat cakes, and browned on the top, and laid all round the pork, with some in another dish. Send to table apple sauce also.

When apples are difficult to procure, subst.i.tute dried peaches, stewed very soft, and in no more water than remains about them after being washed. Sweeten them while hot, as soon as you take them from the fire, mas.h.i.+ng them smoothly.

TO DRESS A YOUNG PIG.--The pig should not be more than three weeks old.

If not fat, it is unfit to eat. To be in perfection, a sucking pig should be eaten the day it is killed, or its goodness and tenderness is impaired every hour. It requires great care in roasting, and constant watching. The custom of _roasting_ a very young pig has now gone much, into disuse, it being found that baking answers the purpose equally well or better, and is far less troublesome.

The pig should be washed perfectly clean, inside and out, and wiped very dry. Have ready a stuffing made of slices of bread, thickly b.u.t.tered and soaked in milk, seasoned with powdered nutmeg and mace, and the grated yellow rind of a lemon, with the _hard-boiled_ yolk of an egg, crumbled, and a large handful, or more, of fine bloom raisins, seeded and cut in half, mix all these ingredients well, and fill with them the body of the pig, sewing it up afterwards. Or you may make a plain stuffing of chopped sage and onions, boiled together, with marjoram; and mixed with bread-crumbs and b.u.t.ter. Having trussed the pig, with the fore-legs bent back, and the hind-legs forward, rub it _all over_ with sweet oil, or with fresh b.u.t.ter tied in a rag. Lay it in a baking-pan, with a little water in the bottom. Then set it in an oven, not too hot, and bake it well, basting it frequently with b.u.t.ter. When done, dish it whole. Skim the gravy in the pan, and mix in some flour. Give it one boil up, having first put into it the chopped liver and heart of the pig, taken out after it was cooked, and stir in the beaten yolk of an egg.

The practice is now obsolete of dissecting a pig before it goes to table, splitting it down the back, and down the front, and laying the two halves in reverse positions, or back to back, with one half the split head at each side, and one ear at each end, the brains being taken out to enrich the gravy. All these disgusting things have been discarded by the better taste of modern epicures. And the pig is baked and comes to table whole. We have always thought it a most unfeminine fancy for a lady to enjoy eating the head of any thing, and the brain particularly.

PORK STEAKS, STEWED.--Take some nice fresh pork steaks, cut either from the leg or the loin. Trim off the superfluous fat. Season them with a little salt and pepper, and plenty of minced sage. Put in with them, minced onions, sliced sweet potatos, parsnips, and white potatos cut into pieces, also some lima beans. Pour in barely sufficient water to cover them; or else stew the pork in a very little lard. Apples cored, pared, and baked whole; the core-place filled with sugar, moistened with a very little water, to put in the bottom of the baking-dish, are a very nice accompaniment to pork steaks.

PORK AND APPLES.--Take nice steaks, or cutlets, of fresh pork. Season them with a little pepper, and a very little salt. Pare, core, and quarter some fine juicy apples. Flavor them with the grated yellow rind and the juice of one or two lemons, and strew among them plenty of sugar. Stew them with merely sufficient water to prevent their burning; or else a little lard without water. When thoroughly done, serve all up in the same dish. If you cannot procure lemons, flavor the apple with rose-water, or nutmeg, _after_ it is cooked. Rose-water evaporates much in cooking.

PORK STEAKS, FRIED.--Cut them thin, but do not trim off the fat.

Sprinkle them well all over with finely minced sage or sweet marjoram.

Lay them in a frying-pan, and fry them well on both sides, keeping them very hot after they are done. Wash out the frying-pan, (or have another one ready, which is better,) and put it over the fire with plenty of lard, or fresh b.u.t.ter. Have ready plenty of slices of large juicy apples, pared, cored, and cut into round pieces. Fry them well, and when done, take them up on a perforated skimmer, to drain the lard from them.

Sprinkle them with powdered sugar, and pile them on a dish to eat with the pork.

Otherwise, send to table with the pork, a dish of apple sauce made in the usual manner, or a dish of dried peaches, stewed, mashed, and sweetened.

PORK APPLE POT-PIE.--Make a plentiful quant.i.ty of nice paste. With some of it line the sides (but not the bottom) of a large pot. At the very bottom lay a slice of _fresh_ pork, with most of the fat trimmed off.

Season it with a very little salt and pepper, and add some pieces of paste. Next put in a thick layer of juicy apples, cut in slices, strewed with brown sugar. Add another layer of pork, and another of sliced apples. Proceed thus till the pot is nearly full, finis.h.i.+ng with a lid of paste, not fitting quite closely. Cut a cross-slit in the top, through which pour in some sweet cider to moisten it, and set it to cooking. Keep the pot covered; set it at once over a good fire, but not so hot as to burn the pie. See that it is well done before you take it up. It is a convenient dish in the country at the season of apple picking, cider making, and pork killing.

Stewed or baked apples are always greatly improved by a flavoring of lemon, rose-water, or nutmeg.

APPLE PORK PIE.--Core, peel, and quarter some fine juicy baking-apples.

Make a nice paste with fresh b.u.t.ter and sifted flour, and line with it the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Put in the apples, and strew among them sufficient brown sugar to make them very sweet. If you can obtain a fresh lemon, pare off very thin the yellow rind, and squeeze the juice to flavor the apples. Prepare some fresh pork steaks, cut thin, and divested of all the fat except a little at the edge; removing the bone.

Cover the apples with a layer of meat, and pour in a tea-cup of _sweet_ cider. The contents of the pie should be heaped up in the centre. Have ready a nice lid of paste, and cover the pie with it, closing and crimping the edge. In the centre of the lid cut a cross-slit. Put it into a hot oven and bake it well. This is a farm-house dish, and very good. Try it.

Apples have always been considered a suitable accompaniment to fresh pork.

FILLET OF PORK.--Cut a fillet or round, handsomely and evenly, from a fine leg of fresh pork. Remove the bone. Make a stuffing or forcemeat of grated bread-crumbs; b.u.t.ter; a tea-spoonful of sweet marjoram, or tarragon leaves; and sage leaves enough to make a small table-spoonful, when minced or rubbed fine; all well mixed, and slightly seasoned with pepper and salt. Then stuff it closely into the hole from whence the bone was taken. Score the skin of the pork in circles to go all round the fillet. These circles should be very close together, or about half an inch apart. Rub into them, slightly, a little powdered sage. Put it on the spit, and roast it well, till it is thoroughly done throughout; as pork, if the least underdone, is not fit to eat. Place it, for the first hour, not very close to the fire, that the meat may get well heated all through, before the skin begins to harden so as to prevent the heat from penetrating sufficiently. Then set it as near the fire as it can be placed without danger of scorching. Keep it roasting steadily with a bright, good, regular fire, for two or three hours, or longer still if it is a large fillet. It may require near four hours. Baste it at the beginning with sweet oil (which will make the skin very crisp) or with lard. Afterwards, baste it with its own gravy. When done, skim the fat from the gravy, and then dredge in a little flour to thicken it.

Send the pork to table with the gravy in a boat; and a deep dish of apple sauce, made very thick, flavored with lemon, and sweetened well.

A fillet of pork is excellent stewed slowly in a very little water, having in the same stew-pot some sweet potatos, peeled, split, and cut into long pieces. If stewed, put _no sage_ in the stuffing; and remove the skin of the pork. This is an excellent family dish in the autumn.

ITALIAN PORK.--Take a nice leg of fresh pork; rub it well with fine salt and let it lie in the salt for a week or ten days. When you wish to cook it, put the pork into a large pot, with just sufficient water to cover it; and let it simmer, slowly, during four hours; skimming it well. Then take it out, and lay it on a large dish. Pour the water from the pot into an earthen pan; skim it, and let it cool while you are skinning the pork. Then put into a pot, a pint of good cider vinegar, mixed with half a pound of brown sugar, and a pint of the water in which the pork has been boiled, and from which all the fat has been carefully skimmed off.

Put in the pork with the upper side towards the bottom of the pot. Set it again over the fire, (which must first be increased,) and heat the inside of the pot-lid by standing it upright against the front of the fire. Then cover the pot closely, and let the pork stew for an hour and a half longer; basting it frequently with the liquid around it, and keeping the pot-lid as hot as possible that the meat may be well browned. When done, the pork will have somewhat the appearance of being coated with mola.s.ses. Serve up the gravy with it. What is left of the meat may be sliced cold for breakfast or luncheon.

You may stew with it, when the pork is put into the pot a second time, some large chestnuts, previously boiled and peeled. Or, instead of chestnuts, sweet potatos, sc.r.a.ped, split, and cut into small pieces.

PORK OLIVES.--Cut slices from a fillet or leg of cold fresh pork. Make a forcemeat in the usual manner, only subst.i.tuting for sweet herbs some sage-leaves, chopped fine. When the slices are covered with the forcemeat, and rolled up and tied round, stew them slowly either in cold gravy left of the pork, or in fresh lard. Drain them well before they go to table. Serve them up on a bed of mashed turnips, or potatos, or of mashed sweet potatos, if in season.

PIGS' FEET, FRIED.--Pigs' feet are frequently used for jelly, instead of calves' feet. They are very good for this purpose, but a larger number is required (from eight to ten or twelve) to make the jelly sufficiently firm. After they have been boiled for jelly, extract the bones, and put the meat into a deep dish: cover it with some good cider vinegar, seasoned with sugar and a little salt and cayenne. Then cover the dish, and set it away for the night. Next morning, take out the meat, and having drained it well from the vinegar, put it into a frying-pan, in which some lard has just come to a boil, and fry it for a breakfast dish.

PORK AND BEANS.--Take a good piece of pickled pork, (not very fat,) and to each pound of pork allow a quart of dried white beans. The bone should be removed from the pork, and the beans well picked and washed.

The evening before they are wanted for cooking, put the beans and pork to soak in _separate pans_; and just before bed-time, drain off the water, and replace it with fresh. Let them soak all night. Early in the morning, drain them well from the water, and wash first the beans, and then the pork in a cullender. Having scored the skin in stripes, or diamonds, put the pork into a pot with fresh cold water, and the beans into another pot with sufficient cold water to cook them well. Season the pork with a little pepper, but, of course, no salt. Boil them separately and slowly till the pork is thoroughly done (skimming it well) and till the beans have all burst open. Afterwards take them out, and drain them well from the water. Then lay the pork in the middle of a tin pan, (there must be no liquid fat about it) and the beans round it, and over it, so as nearly to bury it from sight. Pour in a very little water, and set the dish into a hot oven, to bake or brown for half an hour. If kept too long in the oven the beans will become dry and hard.

If sufficiently boiled when separate, half an hour will be long enough for the pork and beans to bake together. Carefully skim off any liquid fat that may rise to the surface. Cover the dish, and send it to table hot.

For a small dish, two quarts of beans and two pounds of pork will be enough. To this quant.i.ty, when put to bake in the oven, you may allow a pint of water.

This is a good plain dish, very popular in New England, and generally liked in other parts of the country, if properly done.

PORK WITH CORN AND BEANS.--Boil a nice small leg of corned pork, skim it well, and boil it thoroughly. Then have ready a quart, or more, of fresh string-beans, each bean cut into only three pieces. Boil the beans for an hour in a separate pot. In another pot boil four ears of young sweet corn, and when soft and tender, cut it down from the cob, with a sharp knife, and mix it with the boiled beans, having drained them, through a cullender, from all the water that is about them. Having mixed them well together, in a deep dish, season them with pepper, (no salt,) and add a large lump of fresh b.u.t.ter.

For green beans you may subst.i.tute dried white ones, boiled by themselves, well drained, and seasoned with pepper and b.u.t.ter, and mixed in the same dish before they are sent to table. Or the mixed corn and beans may be heaped round the pork upon the same dish.

To eat with them make some indian dumplings of corn meal and water, mixed into a stiff dough, formed into thick dumplings, about as large round as the top of a tea-cup, and boiled in a pot by themselves.

PORK WITH PEAS PUDDING.--Boil a nice piece of pickled or corned pork, (the leg is the best,) and let it be well skinned, and thoroughly cooked. To make the pudding, pick over and wash through cold water, a quart of yellow split peas, and tie them in a square cloth, leaving barely sufficient room for them to swell; but if too much s.p.a.ce is allowed for swelling, they will be weak and washy. When the peas are all dissolved into a ma.s.s, turn them out of the cloth, and rub them through a coa.r.s.e sieve into a pan. Then add a quarter of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, mixed well into the peas, and a very little pepper. Beat light, three yolks and one whole egg, and stir them into the peas a little at a time. Then beat the whole very hard. Dip your pudding-cloth into hot water; spread it out in a pan, and pour the mixture into it. Tie up the cloth, and put the pudding into a pot of boiling water. Let it boil steadily for at least an hour. When done, send it to table, and eat it with the pork.

Next day, if there is much left, boil both the pork and the pudding over again, (the remains of the pudding tied in the cloth.) Let them boil till thoroughly warmed throughout. Cut them in slices. Place them on the same dish, the pork in the middle, with slices of pudding laid round, and send them to the breakfast table, for strong healthy eaters.