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

rough appearance will be the result, this is a great recommendation to goods of this class. They must be of a coarse brown mahogany colour, and should be packed in boxes, the size and shape of cigar-boxes, and made of wood that has neither smell nor taste. Dried bay leaves must be packed with them, about forty in each box. ITALIAN CINCERELLI. At the beginning of every sprat season the fish are possessed of oil or liquid fat to a great extent; this diminishes as the season advances, and in about three weeks or so from their first arrival, take half a bushel of prime fresh ones, pick out the largest, and cure them as best suits your convenience at that time, then throw away the small ones and rubbish, and leaving the middle class for the present purpose. Wash them in salt and water quickly as possible, and set them in a basket to drain. Now make a mixture of Dried bay leaves 2 oz. Green laurel leaves 1 oz. Mace, in powder ½ oz. Sal prunelle, in powder ¾ oz. Genuine cayenne ½ oz. Gum olibanum 2 oz. Bay salt 1½ lb. Powdered loaf sugar ½ lb. These must be all well dried, powdered, and sifted. Take now two perfectly clean unglazed stone jars, as wide at top as at bottom, with bungs cut to fit tightly. Put a bunch of the old-fashioned brimstone matches lighted into each jar, and fumigate them well, wipe them out, and beginning with a light layer of the mixture, proceed with alternate layers of fish and powders, until both are filled, minding to keep them very closely stowed as you proceed; fix in the bungs, and secure them water-tight with melted resin or pitch; put them away in a dry place for six months, turning the jars topsy-turvy every fortnight. They will be delightful, wiped dry and fried in olive oil boiling, or eaten with toast, as anchovies. If thought to be too high flavoured by some persons, put them in warm water at 120 deg. Fahr. for ten minutes prior to serving them. SMOKED CONGER EELS. Request your fishmonger to send in these without their skins, heads, and tails. Take a fish of from five to six pounds weight, and with a large pair of scissors or shears, cut off all the fins close to the body. Open it at the belly, from three inches below the vent up to the head part, and clean away all the garbage, and opening a membrane that covers the backbone, and hid clotted blood, which must be set free. Cut the fish into pieces eight or nine inches long, and wash well and very quickly in strong salt and water, and dry with cloths. Rub all the pieces well inside and outside with this mixture: Common salt or rock, pounded finely 1 lb. Bay salt, powdered 1 lb. Coarse sugar 1 lb. White pepper, ground 2 oz. and lay them in a deep pan, rubbing and turning them daily for four days; then take them up, wipe them dry, stretch out the sides by splints of wood, so that the wind may get easy access to the inside surface, and hang them up in a free current of air for twenty-four hours. Next lay them on their backs, and pay them inside plentifully with Essence of allspice 2 tablespoonfuls Essence of cloves 1 tablespoonful Essence of bays 2 tablespoonfuls Essence of cayenne ½ tablespoonful Particularly attend to the bone and the solid pieces below the vent, towards the tail, which must be cut open to the bone, and specially well paid over with the essences; repeating it three or four times. Let the pieces lie thus on their backs forty-eight hours, attended to at least twice a day, and the brushing part continued. Now wipe each piece dry, rub warmed oatmeal over every part and hang them up to dry, which fully accomplished, they must be smoked and dried three weeks, then the ragged edges pared off, and either coated with gelatine or wrapped in paper, and hidden well in malt cooms. Rich broiling steaks may be cut in two months. The fuel for smoking them should be Oak lops 2 parts Peat 1 part Beech 2 parts Fern or turfs 1 part If boiled in the pieces as they were cured they must be put into water that boils, and when brought again to the boiling point, to be only _simmered_ afterwards till done enough. To be eaten cold. COLLARED CONGER EELS. Fish of four to six pounds and upwards may be treated as follows: Head, tail, and fins being removed, the skin must be taken off, but reserved. Lay the fish open at the backs, take out the large bone the whole length, scatter bay salt in fine powder generally over the inside face, and coarse sugar over that again, and load boards down upon both sides, same as for kippered salmon. Next day remove the boards, renew the salt and sugar, and dust ground white pepper over all; leave pressed down till the morrow. Now add to the pickle, which is now getting moist, Allspice, in powder 1 oz. Juniper berries, in powder 1 oz. Bay leaves, in powder 1 oz. Laurel leaves, shred 1½ oz. For convenience, it must be cut in pieces, whenever it suits you best, and according to your vats. When it has laid two days more, and has been well rubbed inside and out with this second mixture, take up the pieces, wipe them fair with cloths, and roll up each piece, making a nice collar, which may be now dried gradually, then smoked as the former, and finally coated with gelatine, &c., or buried in malt cooms with paper round it. Tape is better for binding than string. DRIED CONGER EELS, HIGH FLAVOURED. Take two eels, not exceeding four pounds each, skin them, cut off the heads, tails, and fins, split them open at the belly, clean well out, cut them across a little below the vent, and again into pieces four inches long. Lay open the solid pieces from below the vent, and rub them in every part well with Cloves, powdered finely 1 oz. Mace, powdered finely ½ oz. Nutmeg, powdered finely 1 oz. Bay leaves, shred finely 1 oz. Coarse sugar 1 lb. Let them lie, being rubbed and turned in the pickle twenty-four hours, then add bay salt one pound, and continue the rubbing a day longer. Take them up now, and rub them with Juniper berries, bruised ½ oz. Shalots, shred finely 1 oz. Table salt ¼ lb. Black pepper, finely ground 1 oz. Repeat this twice a day for two days; then wipe them dry, and suspend them in a free current of air until the insides, which must be exposed by sticks of wood, are no longer moist. Sew up each piece separately in calico that has been steeped in whisky or rum, and with which the backbone inside has been well saturated. Tie round with narrow tape, hang to dry one night, and coat with the gelatine composition. In two months they will be splendid, being broiled in the wrappers and served hot. BROWN CAVIARE. This excellent relish may be prepared with advantage in January and February, when the codfish come to our markets full of roes. Having procured some roes and livers as soon after they are taken out of the fish as possible, tie them up separately in cloths, and put them into a pan of boiling water, in which common salt one pound, and saltpetre one ounce to the gallon, have been dissolved, and let them simmer by the fireside, the roes for four hours and the livers for two hours, and let them get cold in the water they were boiled in. When taken up, carefully remove all the skins and dark specks――coagulated blood――and pound them separately in a mortar, until of a perfectly smooth paste. Then mix them in the proportion of two and a half ounces of the liver to one and a half ounce of the roes, and work them well together on a dish――a clean board is better――with a broad knife, until not a bit of film or one dark speck can be seen. Make a mixture of Cinnamon, in finest powder ¼ oz. Cloves, in finest powder 1 oz. Mace, in finest powder ½ oz. Cayenne pepper, in finest powder ½ oz. Bay leaves 1 oz. Sift these, and add table salt to your taste. Lay paper shavings in the bottom of a stone jar, and upon them a piece of new calico, and then proceed to make alternate layers of leaves of bay and your fish, with one laurel leaf on each layer of the roes. Tie paper over the jar, and subject it to the heat of a water-bath in a large saucepan for three hours; then let it cool a night, and take out the contents of the jar, observing, when near the bottom to let none of the oil below the calico, mix with your fish. Now take out the leaves, mix all the fish well together, and salt, if you think it requisite, and fill clean little jars and potting pots with it; dry them a little in a slow oven, and when cold pour clarified butter over, and finish with wetted bladder, &c. &c. WHITE CAVIARE Is prepared from the milts of the male fish alone, and must be procured fresh as possible. Tie them up in cloths, and boil them in salt and water with saltpetre, as for brown caviare. When cold, remove the skins――which will involve much trouble――and work the mass well with the best fresh butter clarified. Subject to the water-bath with bay leaves and green laurel, and season with Mace ½ oz. Cloves 1 oz. Table salt 4 oz. White pepper 1 oz. Nutmeg ½ oz. which must be all in the finest powder, and sifted. When all are well incorporated, add to the mass as much of the lemon zest as will be just perceptible, and fill pots of small sizes, in which the fish must be well pressed down; put a short time in a cool oven, and when cold be covered with clarified butter or olive oil, and next day, seeing that the air is excluded, tie over with bladder; and keep in a dry, cool room. This preparation will require two or three months to get well flavoured and mellow, and has been highly extolled by a first rate authority. CAVIS OF MACKAREL. Take twelve nice fresh fish, open them at the belly, take out the roes, which set apart, the eyes, gills, &c., and wipe quite clean. Mix White pepper, in powder 1 oz. Mace, in powder ½ oz. Cloves, in powder 1 oz. Table salt 4 oz. Season the insides of the fish plentifully with this mixture, and close the sides upon it, tie the fish round with packthread, and place them on their backs on a layer of table salt, and let them lie till next day. Take off the threads, and lay the fish in a deep dish or earthen pan, and pour over them best vinegar and water in equal parts. Pare off the thin yellow rind of one large or two smaller lemons, lay this on the top, cover with paper and bake in slow oven. If not all consumed in a week, boil up the pickle, skim it, and pour again to the fish, when cold. HERRINGS PICKLED. When the herrings come fine and fresh, embrace the opportunity to preserve some by this process. Scale twenty fish, cut off the heads, fins, and tails, open them at the belly, clean them well out, and, if required, wash them in salt and water, and dry them quickly; season the insides with Mace, powdered ½ oz. Cloves, powdered 1 oz. Nutmeg, powdered 1 oz. Bay leaf, powdered 1 oz. Cayenne pepper ½ oz. and fry them a nice brown colour in boiling olive oil, and do the same to the roes, which must have been washed and well dried previous to the frying; set all by to get cold, on sieves or cloths, and keep covered up. Make a pickle of Allspice 1 oz. Black pepper 1 oz. Few bay leaves Salt 6 oz. Vinegar 1 pint by boiling twenty minutes, and straining quite clear. Lay your fish, cut in proper pieces, in oblong earthenware pots, and pour the pickle over them when it is scalding hot, not boiling. Next day fill up the pots with more liquor, and tie bladder over them. These will be fit for table in a week, but will be improved by keeping. If any water is put to the vinegar it will certainly spoil them for keeping long. HERRINGS CAVEACH. Scale two dozen of fresh herrings, take off the heads and tails, split them open at the belly, clean them out nicely, and lay them with their roes in strong pickle of salt and water for three hours, then wipe them well and season with White pepper 1 oz. Mace, in fine powder ½ oz. Cloves, in fine powder 1 oz. Nutmeg, in fine powder 1 oz. well mixed and sifted; replace the roes in the fish, which lay along in a deep dish, covered with what spice remains, and twenty bay leaves; tie paper over, and bake them in a slow oven. Boil vinegar and water equal parts, and when cold, pour it over the herrings so as to cover them well. In two days they will be very good, and are intended only for present use. YORKSHIRE PRESSED PORK. Take two pounds of lean pork and four pounds of the fat, freed from all skin and gristle; chop the meat coarsely, and mix with it intimately, Table salt 2 tablespoonfuls White pepper 2 tablespoonfuls Thyme, powdered 1 teaspoonful Parsley, minced 1 teaspoonful Sage, powdered 1 teaspoonful Garlic, minced 1 teaspoonful press the meat well into a dish, tie brown paper over it, and bake in a slow oven two hours. It is generally eaten cold. BIRMINGHAM TRIPE. It is not less strange than true, that this excellent preparation cannot be procured in perfection except in London, Oxford, Birmingham, and Coventry, the first of which is supplied principally from Birmingham. The more independent and established of the preparers of this delicacy refuse to communicate the secret of the process to strangers, and my own curiosity cost me a guinea some few years ago, besides my expenses from Lancashire and back again. As will be seen, however, plenty of cold and of boiling water, with an adequate amount of diligence, are the main requisites, which I liked the better, since in the whole of my practice I have eschewed the use of drugs and chemicals, as tending to rob what is estimable by nature of its purity and flavour. The butchers in this case leave nearly all the fat attached, and which is absolutely necessary to the richness of the tripe when cooked. It is forbidden to interfere with the bellies, as they are termed, until the day they are wanted, and they are therefore hung up in an outer-house. The cleansing commences with scraping off the rough dirt with a dull edged knife, and, proceeding in this way, scraping until you come to the most troublesome and tedious part, viz. the “honeycomb,” and every one of those little cells of which it is composed is to be attacked with a dull pointed knife, until, by assiduity and great patience, the work is completed. The process is forwarded by occasionally dipping the flesh into the boiling water, which is always close at hand. And beautifully sweet are these parts of the beast made by these means, without a grain of lime or salt, or any chemicals. The part when cleaned is washed in two or three fresh waters, then cut into large pieces, and put into a tin jar made on purpose, nearly covering the meat with soft water, and sent off to the common bakehouse to be left in――after the bread is withdrawn――for five or six hours. When it is brought home, a teacupful of _new_ milk is put into the liquor or gravy, in the tin, stirred about for a minute or so, and the business is completed. CALF’S HEAD BRAWN. A fine large calf’s head is best adapted for this purpose with the skin on. Take out the brains, and bone it entirely, or let the butcher do this. Rub a little fine salt over it, and let it drain for ten or twelve hours; next wipe it dry, and rub each half well in every part with Brown sugar 2 oz. Saltpetre ¾ oz. Common salt 4 oz. Bay salt 3 oz. all in very fine powder. Turn the head in this pickle for four or five days, rubbing it a little each time; pour over it four ounces of West India molasses (eight ounces for the whole head), and continue to turn it every day, and baste it with the brine very frequently for a month, then hang it for a night to drain, fold each part separately in brown paper, and send it to be smoked for three or four weeks. When wanted for table, wash and scrape one half of it very clean, but do not soak it. Lay it with the rind downwards into a saucepan or stewpan, which will hold it easily, and cover it well with cold water, as it will swell considerably in the cooking. Let it heat rather slowly, skim it thoroughly when it first begins to simmer, and boil it as gently as possible from an hour and three quarters to a couple of hours or more, should it not then be perfectly tender quite through, for unless sufficiently boiled, the skin, which greatly resembles bacon, will be unpleasantly tough when cold; when the fleshy side of the head is done, which will be twenty minutes or half an hour sooner than the outside, pour the water from it, leaving so much only in the saucepan as will just cover the gelatinous part, and simmer it until this is thoroughly tender. The head thus cured is very highly flavoured, and most excellent eating. The receipt for it is new. It will be seen that the foregoing proportion of ingredients, with the exception of the treacle, is for one half of the head only, and must be doubled for a whole one. PORTABLE SOUP. Take Calves feet 2 lb. Mutton 5 lb. Pork 1 lb. One onion, minced fine Two heads celery, minced fine Two carrots, minced fine Salt 1 tablespoonful Put these into a saucepan with just sufficient water to cover them, and set it on to boil. When nearly done, suspend a clove bag in the liquor. Remove the meats, and press them through a sieve; evaporate the fluid freed from water in a water-bath to the consistency of honey, and pour it upon a clean smooth stone or slate. When cold, cut it into pieces and dry it. Beef and veal, as an addition, or alone, may be treated in the same manner. ANOTHER, AND MUCH RICHER. Take the lean part of a good ham, ten pounds weight, a leg of beef and a leg of veal, after the round and fillet have been cut off, slice off