THE ART AND MYSTERY OF CURING, PRESERVING, AND POTTING ALL KINDS OF MEATS, GAME, AND FISH TEXT

week at least, smoke it a month with oak lops, fern, beech chips, and turfs. EXCELLENT HAMS OF HIGH FLAVOUR. Hang a leg of well-fed pork, weighing about eighteen pounds, as long as the weather will permit; take Coarse sugar 1 lb. Sal prunelle 2 oz. Juniper berries, bruised 2 oz. Black pepper, bruised 1 oz. Bay salt, bruised 2 lb. Rub this mixture well into all parts of the meat, and let it lie, being rubbed and turned twice in three days and nights; then add rock salt, or if you cannot get it, then common salt two pounds, and let it lie a month, turning it every other day. Then wipe it dry, and put a nice clear covering of bran or pollard all over the joint, and smoke it a month, turning it now and then in the chimney while the juices are settling. The fuel must be oak lops, sawdust, and beech chips. If you have no store chest with malt, corn, &c., you must have your resource in a paper bag, as is often the case. Do not let your meats hang near a kitchen fire from the ceiling; they will inevitably be rancid if you do, and to avoid the flies in summer time, brush your meats over once a fortnight with three drops of creosote in a pint of water. A NORFOLK CHINE. Take the chine of a well-fed hog of ten score weight, deprived of the rind, and what fat may be considered superfluous, and rub it in all parts effectually with West India molasses 1 lb. Bay salt 1 lb. Laurel leaves, shred 1 oz. Bay leaves 1 oz. and let it be rubbed and turned daily for a week. Next boil together the herbs used above, and Marjoram a handful. Thyme a handful. Juniper berries, crushed 1 oz. Rock or common salt 1 lb. Water 3 quarts Skim it well, and when cold, pour it to the meat, and mix with the first pickle. Take care that the pickle completely covers the chine. Handle it attentively three weeks, and wipe it dry. It must be well coated with bran first, and pea-flour over that, and smoked with Oak lops 2 parts Dried fern 2 parts Beech or birch chips 2 parts for a fortnight or more. One half of it will be exceedingly good, if coated with the gelatine composition, and kept three months; the other half may be baked, and eaten cold. LEICESTERSHIRE SPICED BACON. Many persons are prejudiced against spiced bacon, _generally_ because they may have been deceived in the quality of that purchased at the shops; too often indeed is the spicing resorted to that it may cover defects which would have been too glaring if merely salted. (See Note, No. 3.) Take a middle of well-fed large pork, and divide it into pieces that will suit your salting tub; rub them well over, both sides, with warmed treacle, and let them lie for a week, being rubbed and turned every day; then take a mixture of Bay salt, beaten fine 3 lb. Saltpetre, beaten fine ¼ lb. Allspice, ground 2 oz. Black pepper 1 oz. and rub the meat well with this on the fleshy side only, for a week, after which turn the pieces every other day for a fortnight longer. You may then dry it with cloths, and suspend the meat in a current of air, being turned end for end every third day; and when ready, lay on a nice coat of bran or pollard, and smoke with oak and beech for a fortnight, and finish it by adding peat to your smoking fuel for a week longer. This will be superior bacon. SMOKED PORKER’S HEAD. Take the head of a dairy-fed porker, seven score weight, lay it open, take out the tongue, gullet, eyes, &c., and wash it five minutes in salt and water. Rub it well all over with coarse sugar and sliced onions, and let it remain in a deep dish forty-eight hours, the tongue may be cured as a neat’s tongue. Make a pickle by boiling Bay leaves, powdered ½ oz. Saltpetre ¾ oz. Bay salt or rock salt 1 lb. Allspice, ground 2 oz. Water 1 quart Skim it well, and when cold, pour it over the head in a deep straight-sided earthen vessel; so let it lie three weeks, being turned and basted with the pickle every other day. Take it up now, wipe it dry, place the tongue in, and stuff all the cavities with a stuffing of onions fried in olive oil or sweet lard, and dried sage powdered; bind the cheeks close together with tape, and smoke it three weeks with beech chips two parts, fern two parts, peat one part, oak sawdust one part. It must be kept in same packing as hams, tongues, &c., and in two months it will be excellent, baked and taken cold. BATH CHAPS, OR CHEEKS. Chose your cheeks from pigs not more than eight score weight. Split open, carefully take out all the offal, and for every stone of fourteen pounds of meat, allow Saltpetre 1 oz. Coarse sugar 1 lb. Bay salt or rock 1 lb. Pepper 1 oz. Rub the cheeks thoroughly and daily for a week; then turn them in the pickle for a fortnight more, when you may take them up, dry and wipe, and coat them nicely with warmed coarse oatmeal, and hang them to dry for a week. Smoke them a month, or only dry them in your chimney by a gentle heat. Oak and grass turfs must be the fuel made use of. DUTCH BEEF. Take ten pounds of any part of prime beef that has a moderate share of fat attached, the thick flanks suit well. Displace the skin, and rub the meat all over with foots of coarse sugar one pound, and let it lie three days and nights, turned daily. Take then Bay salt 1 lb. Common salt 1 lb. Sal prunelle 1 oz. Garlic, minced 1 oz. Juniper berries, crushed 1 oz. Vinegar ½ pint with which mixture rub your meat well five days, and then turn it in the pickle every three days for a fortnight more. Bind broad tape around it as a collar, rub pea-flour over it in all parts, until it is thoroughly coated therewith, and smoke it a month with oak lops, sawdust, and beech or birch chips. It should be kept in store two months at least, and then put into boiling water over the fire, done moderately, and cut when cold. HAUNCH OF MUTTON AS VENISON. Get your butcher to leave the tail attached to a leg of fine fat wether mutton, which you may hang as long as ever the weather will permit. Carefully remove the outer skin, and rub half a pint of pure olive oil well into all parts of it, lying in a deep dish. Put into a jug Three large heads of garlic, sliced Bay salt, a teaspoonful Allspice, bruised, ¼ oz. Six dried bay leaves Or nine green ones Seven or eight sprigs parsley Seven or eight sprigs thyme White peppercorns, ½ oz. Pour a pint of good vinegar, nearly boiling, over these, cover the jug close, and let remain till next day. Then add this pickle to the meat, and rub it well in for half an hour, not disturbing the fat if possible; slice six large onions, and strew them equally over the meat, turn it every day twice, and keep always the onions well on the uppermost part. Continue this for five days, then take it up, wipe it dry, and rub it for half an hour with a pound of West India molasses, made hot. Next day wipe it clean, and roast it as venison. Serve with red-currant jelly liquefied. THIGH OF MUTTON L’DIABLE. Take a short thick leg of prime mutton, that has been well kept, and rub it well in all parts with pounded bay salt for half an hour, then immerse it in cold water for a minute, and wipe it quite dry. Mix well Table salt, 1 large tablespoonful Black pepper, ground, 1 teaspoonful Cayenne pepper, ½ oz. One clove garlic, minced Treacle, ½ lb. Rub the joint freely with this until it has disappeared. Divide the flesh down to the bone for three inches above the knuckle, and lay in three shalots, and half a head of garlic minced very fine, and close the skin neatly over it. Set aside on a dish until the next day, when rub it again with what liquor may have arisen, and put it down to roast before a brisk clear fire. Smear six ounces of sound fat bacon with a spoonful of tar, stick it on the prongs of a long toasting fork, and when the meat is about half cooked, hold the bacon over the fire until it blazes, then transfer it over the meat, and baste it with the liquid fire until the bacon has melted all away. The mutton when cooked will have a peculiar appearance, and a flavour highly esteemed by many persons. To be served hot with a spoonful or two of tomato, or any other favourite sauce. WELSH MUTTON HAMS. Take a couple of legs of prime Welsh mutton, rub them well with treacle made hot, and put them away in a deep pan until the next day. Make a pickle of Thyme 1 handful Marjoram 1 handful Bay leaves 1 handful Laurel leaves 1 handful Saltpetre 1 oz. Black pepper 2 oz. Bay salt 2 lb. Water 5 pints boiled an hour and well skimmed, and when cold to be poured over the meat, and to be rubbed every day, and turned for three weeks. Then take them out of pickle, rub them well in all parts with strong vinegar for one hour, when wipe them dry, and hang them up in a current of air until well dry. Then give them a thorough coat of bran or of oatmeal, and smoke them with Oak sawdust 2 parts Peat 1 part Beech 2 parts Turfs or fern 1 part for three weeks or more. Store them in malt cooms and pulverised charcoal, and in three months they will be very good. DRIED MUTTON, AS IN THE ARDENNES. Dried garden thyme 1 oz. Dried marjoram 1 oz. Dried bay leaves 1 oz. Juniper berries, bruised 2 oz. Put these into a stone jar with a pint of fresh rendered goose oil, and let them digest three weeks. Take a leg or loin of prime mutton fresh from the butcher, rub it well in all parts, with the herbs and part of the oil prepared as above, and lay it in a vessel covered close; to be turned and rubbed every day for three weeks; then hang it up in a cold dry air three days more, when add to the herbs Coarse salt 1 lb. Bay salt 1 lb. Coarse sugar 1 lb. Black pepper 1 oz. Saltpetre 2 oz. Rub the joint then with the whole mixture, and let it lie; if a leg, for fourteen days; if a loin, nine days, turning it every day. Take it out, wipe it dry and rub all parts with warmed bran or pollard, and suspend it again in a dry air previous to enclosing it in a paper or calico bag for a month, then pack it in malt cooms and charcoal. If preferred smoked, we cannot provide you with juniper bushes for that purpose, and with which the “Ardennes” abounds, we must therefore substitute Oak lops 1 part Beech chips 2 parts Fern 2 parts Peat 1 part TO PICKLE A TONGUE. Take out the gullet and rough root of a neat’s tongue, eight pounds weight; rub it well with common or rock salt three days, then take Foots of sugar ¼ lb. Saltpetre in powder ½ oz. Rub well with this, out of the pickle, then return all to the first brine, and keep it close covered three weeks, turning it every day. It will be fit to be cooked if wanted, but if to be smoked, treat it with the drying process, and when ready, smoke it with Oak lops 2 parts Fern 2 parts Peat 2 parts This is intended for tongues for general purposes. There follow some excellent pickles for higher flavours. HAMBRO’ PICKLE FOR BEEF AND PORK. Rock salt 3 lb. Saltpetre 1½ oz. Sal prunelle ¾ oz. Black pepper 2 oz. Foots of sugar 1¾ lb. Water 2 gall. Boil fifteen minutes, skimming well; pour into a vessel, and the next day it will be fit for use. This is appropriate for beef, hams, and tongues――for family use, hotels, and refreshment rooms, &c. &c. A moderate-sized round of beef should remain in it fourteen to sixteen days. PICKLE FOR PORK. EXCELLENT FOR A QUARTER OF A YEAR. For a whole porker weighing not exceeding five score pounds. The pieces adapted for pickling being at hand, put a layer of finely beaten rock salt at the bottom of your powdering tub, which must always be particularly clean and sweet, and better if fumigated with sulphur the day before it is used, then place the thickest of the meat, then a layer of this mixture: Rock salt 2 lb. Coarse sugar 1 lb. Saltpetre ½ lb. Sal prunelle ½ lb. then again meat, and alternately to the finish, and filling all the spaces with common or rock salt. In a week, if a pickle does not rise up so as totally to cover the pork, boil as much of similar ingredients, and, when cold, pour it gradually and evenly over the meat, and leave it. You can take thin pieces out in a fortnight if wanted in haste, but it will be preferable if not disturbed for a month. The water requisite for the second brine depends upon what brine was produced by the first salting. PRESERVATIVE PICKLE. This is proper for cured meats in general, and is recommended for imparting a mild and excellent flavour. Rock or common salt 1 lb. Bay salt 1 lb. Coarse sugar 1 lb. Saltpetre ¼ lb. Water 1 gall. SUPERIOR PICKLE FOR PORK. Rock salt or common salt 3 lb. Bay salt 3 lb. Saltpetre ¼ lb. Loaf sugar 2 lb. River or rain water 3 gall. Boil and skim well. Apply cold. Small delicate pork will be ready in a week. BREAST OF MUTTON COLLAR, AS VENISON. Hang the largest breast of well-fed wether mutton you can get, as long as the weather will warrant you. Take away the outer skin, all the bones, and strew coarse sugar plentifully all over the inside flesh, and put a slate or piece of board that is tasteless――as beech, or sycamore, or poplar――upon it, with heavy weights, and let it remain so forty-eight hours. Be provided with Garden thyme, in powder 1 tablespoonful Marjoram, in powder 1 tablespoonful Eschalots, minced 4 tablespoonfuls Nutmeg, grated ½ oz. Bay salt 1 lb. White pepper, ground 1 oz. Old ale 1 pint Boil these altogether for twenty minutes. Rub both sides of the meat for at least twenty minutes, and lay it, along with its sugar or pickle, in a deep vessel, and keep up the friction for a week or nine days; then take it up, dry it with cloths, and making a layer of bay leaves and laurel in a dry tub, put the breast upon it, and cover the meat with other leaves of similar sort, and with thyme, parsley, and any sweet herbs you may have near at hand. Now take it up, wash it for five minutes in vinegar and table-beer, half-and-half, and hang it up to dry for twenty-four hours, then roll it up as a collar, and bind it tight; hang it in your chimney, but do not let much smoke enter into it, as it must be dried rather than smoked. The embers of beech chips, grass turfs, and sawdust, will effect this in a week. The half of it may be roasted, and the other part kept with your hams, tongues, &c., for six months; it will then be mellow and beautifully flavoured. A PERPETUAL GOOSE. Procure the heart of a prime ox――the larger the better――hang it up in a current of dry air as long as it is safe, and at the same time get a pint of newly-drawn goose oil, which put into a jar along with Six or eight eschalots, minced Onions, sliced 1 lb. Dried sage, powdered 1 oz. Bay salt ¼ lb. Saltpetre ½ oz. Tie brown paper over, and let it remain in a gentle heat until your meat is ready. First cut out from the heart, the pipe――blood vessel――as low down as you can, pare away the “deaf ears,” and open as wide as you consistently can, without piercing the bark or outside skin, a communication between the two upper cavities――auricles, and the two lower ones――ventricles, and take out the coagulated blood. Next rub all parts, the inside and outside, thoroughly twice a day with the oily mixture for a week, having put the meat, point downwards, in a straight-sided deep earthen vessel, and keeping the cavities all the while filled with the liquor. Now boil for fifteen minutes. Bay leaves, shred 1 oz. Green laurel, shred 1 oz. Bay salt, pounded ½ lb. Vinegar 1 pint Porter 1 pint Coarse sugar 1 lb. Skim it well and add it when half-cold to the meat in the jar, mixing all well together. Mind that the meat is completely covered with the pickle, and tie paper over all, so let it be for a week, when boil up all the pickle, skimming it well, and taking care to renew what may have been lost or imbibed, and the cavities kept well filled all the time; let it be in pickle a fortnight longer, then take up, wipe dry inside and out, make a stuffing of fried sliced onions and sage leaves powdered, adding black pepper to make it pleasantly hot, and with this fill the inside of the heart as full as possible, and pressing it in from the top, make the holes secure with wetted bladder sewed over them. Let it hang up for a day or two to dry, then wrap it in brown