Every Step in Canning Part 12

6 Whole cloves.

6 Peppercorns.

1 Blade mace or a little thyme or both.

A little flour.

1 Tablespoonful chopped parsley.

Salt and paprika to taste.

Cut the meat into one inch squares and roll in flour. Melt the fat in the frying pan, add the vegetables (onions, celery, carrots) and brown lightly: add the meat and brown. Stir with a spoon or fork to prevent burning. When browned empty into a pan.

Put the bay leaf, cloves, peppercorns, mace and thyme into a cheesecloth bag and add to the meat, add tomatoes. Cover with soup stock or water and simmer 45 minutes if it is going to be canned. If for immediate use, 2 hours will be necessary to thoroughly cook it.

Remove the spices, season with salt, paprika and the chopped parsley.

You can add Worcesters.h.i.+re sauce or soy sauce if desired. Use only small quant.i.ties as these sauces are very strong in their distinctive flavor. Put hot mixture into cans and sterilize.

If the different spices are not at hand a good goulash can be made by using the meat, fat, onions, tomatoes, flour, salt and pepper and omitting the rest of the recipe.

LIVER SAUSAGE

Beef, veal, or hog liver. Remove the membrane and cut away the large blood vessels. Soak in water 1 to 2 hours to draw out blood. Boil until done. When cooled put through a food chopper or grate finely.

Take half as much boiled fat pork as liver. Divide this fat into two portions; chop one portion into one-quarter inch cubes; pa.s.s the other portion through the food chopper; mix all together thoroughly; add salt, ground cloves, pepper, and a little grated onion to taste. A little thyme and marjoram may be added to suit taste. (For a liver weighing 1 pounds add pounds fat pork, 3 to 4 teaspoonfuls salt, teaspoonful cloves, teaspoonful pepper, 1 small onion, teaspoonful thyme, and pinch of marjoram.) This mixture is stuffed into large casings. (If no casings are available, make casings of clean white muslin.) Cover with boiling water, bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes. Pack into cans, fill in with the water in which the sausages were boiled. Sterilize.

This liver sausage may also be made from the raw liver and raw pork, but in that case the sterilizing is for a longer period, as the time-table indicates. This recipe is recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture.

HEAD CHEESE

Cut a hog's head into four pieces. Remove the brains, ears, skin, snout and eyes. Cut off the fattest parts for lard. Put the lean and bony parts to soak over night in cold water in order to extract the blood and dirt. When the head is cleaned put it over the fire to boil, using water enough to cover it. Boil until the meat separates readily from the bones. Then remove it from the fire and pick out all the bones. Drain off the liquor, saving a part of it for future use. Chop the meat up finely with a chopping knife. Return it to the kettle and pour on enough of the liquor to cover the meat. Let it boil slowly for fifteen minutes to a half-hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper just before removing it from the fire. Bay leaves, a little ground cloves and allspice may be added and boiled a short time in the soup.

Pack while hot in cans to within inch of top. Sterilize. This head cheese is always served cold.

CORNED BEEF

After beef has been properly corned for three weeks, remove the meat from the brine. Soak for two hours in clear water, changing water once. Place in a wire basket and boil slowly for half an hour. Remove from the boiling water, plunge into cold water, and remove gristle, bone and excessive fat. Cut into small pieces and pack closely into cans. Add no salt and proceed as in other canning.

CANNED PORK

After the animal has been killed, cool quickly and keep the pork cool for at least 24 hours. Can only lean portions, using the fat to make lard. Place meat in a wire basket or cheesecloth and boil 30 minutes, or roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Cut into small sections and pack closely into cans. Add salt and proceed with remainder of process.

Other pieces of beef and pork: Hamburg steak, sausage, venison, squirrel, racc.o.o.n, opossum, lamb, are canned as follows:

After cleaning, season and fry, roast, stew, or bake in oven as though preparing for serving directly on the table. Cook until meat is about three fourths done. Pack while hot into sanitary tin cans or gla.s.s jars. Pour over the meat the hot liquids, gravies, dressings, etc., or hot water. Add salt and proceed as in any other cold-pack canning.

HOW TO CAN POULTRY AND GAME WITH THE BONES REMOVED

Kill bird and draw immediately; wash carefully and cool; then cut into convenient sections. Boil until the meat can be removed from the bones; remove from the boiling liquid and take out all bones; pack closely into gla.s.s jars or enameled cans; fill jars with the hot liquid after it has been concentrated one half; add 1 level teaspoonful salt to every quart of meat for seasoning; put rubbers and top of jars in place but not tight. If using enameled cans completely seal. Sterilize the length of time given in the time-table on page 108 of this book. After the sterilizing remove the jars; tighten the covers if gla.s.s was used; invert to cool and test joints. Wrap with paper to prevent bleaching.

FRIED SPRING CHICKEN

After cleaning and preparing the chickens, season and fry as though for serving directly on the table. Cook until the meat is about three-fourths done. If a whole spring chicken, break the neck and both legs and fold around body of chicken. Roll up tight, tie a string around the chicken and drop this hot, partially fried product into sanitary tin cans or gla.s.s jars. A quart tin can (No. 3) will hold two to four small chickens. Pour liquid from the griddle or frying pan into the can over the chicken. Proceed, as in any other canning, with the sealing, sterilizing and removing of the jars. Chicken fries canned in the late fall preserve the meat at the most delicious stage and furthermore we avoid the expense of feeding the chickens throughout the winter.

HOW TO CAN c.o.c.kERELS

When c.o.c.kerels reach the point in their growth where it is no longer profitable to feed them, and when they are wanted for home use during the winter months they should be canned. This method of handling the c.o.c.kerel not only saves money by cutting down the feed bill, but it places in the pantry or cellar the means of a delicious chicken dinner at a time of the year when the price of poultry is high.

The bird should not be fed for at least twenty-four hours before killing. It should be killed by the approved method and picked dry.

When the feathers have been removed and the pin feathers drawn the bird should be cooled rapidly. This rapid cooling after killing is essential to a good flavor in canned meat. As soon as the bird has been properly cooled it should be singed and washed carefully with a brush.

CUTTING UP AND DRAWING CHICKENS

Mr. George Farrell, a most expert canner, tells us how to go about this job of canning chicken.

In preparing the bird for canning, care should be taken in drawing it so that the contents of the digestive tract do not come in contact with the meat.

1. Remove the tops of the wings, cutting at the first joint.

2. Remove the wings.

3. Remove the foot, cutting at the knee joint.

4. Remove the leg, cutting at the hip or saddle joint.

5. Cut the removed portion of the leg into two parts at the joint.

6. Place the bird so the back of the head is toward the operator, cut through the neck bone with a sharp knife but do not cut the windpipe or gullet.

7. With the index finger separate the gullet and windpipe from the skin of the neck.

8. Cut through the skin of the neck.

9. With a pointed knife cut through the skin from the upper part of the neck, thus separated, to the wing.

10. Leave the head attached to the gullet and windpipe and loosen these from the neck down as far as the crop.

11. With a sharp pointed knife cut around the shoulder blade, pull it out of position and break it.

12. Find the white spots on the ribs and cut through the ribs on these white spots.

13. Cut back to the vent; cut around it, and loosen.

14. Begin at the crop and remove the digestive tract from the bird, pulling it back toward the vent.

15. Remove the lungs and kidneys with the point of a knife.

16. Cut off the neck close to the body.