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

THE ART AND MYSTERY OF CURING, PRESERVING, AND POTTING ALL KINDS OF MEATS, GAME, AND FISH; ALSO THE ART OF PICKLING AND THE PRESERVATION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. ADAPTED AS WELL FOR THE WHOLESALE DEALER AS ALL HOUSEKEEPERS. BY A WHOLESALE CURER OF COMESTIBLES. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1864. PREFACE. This treatise comprises light and heavy salting, saccharine and muriatic preservative fluids, drying by gentle heat and air currents, smoking with woods, peat and turfs, marinating of fish and bucaning[A] of meats, and the whole processes of potting, preserving, and pickling. That there exists a necessity for such a work as this, is but too evident from the disappointments experienced every summer, not only by those who purchase at the shops, but the heads of families, who, replenishing their store-rooms annually, reasonably expect that every article, when produced at table, will meet its meed of praise. Hams, hung meats, cured tongues, &c., as well as the more expensive sorts of fish, as smoked and kippered salmon, are often so loaded with salt as to be hard, tough, and barely eatable; and, on the other hand, are often found in a state of slow decomposition, unwholesome and disgustful. To obtain perfection in this art, much more depends upon the fuel made use of than is generally supposed, and I have herein adapted the different sorts of wood, &c., to the particular articles to be acted upon. To render this manual available to all classes of society, from the butteries of the nobility to the more humble cupboard of the tradesman, as also to the proprietors of Italian warehouses, of hotels, refreshment-rooms, and to fishmongers, pastrycooks, &c. &c., I have laid down rules and receipts in intelligible language and arrangement, and I trust that there is not a single instance in the whole of these pages, where any noxious or deleterious ingredients are recommended to be used, and by which the stomach and system are made to suffer to please the eye and the palate. Instructions for an exceedingly useful and cheap apparatus for curing and smoking is appended, as well as the best method of keeping, for a length of time, every description of goods so cured and preserved. Amongst the marinated fish and bucaned meats will be found many of the most delicious specimens that a nicely discerning judgment could dictate, and which are certain of extensive patronage, after having been once partaken of. I beg to refer my readers to the “Notes” at the conclusion of this work, as exponents of gross errors long cherished in the old common practice, and of facts so self-evident as not to be resisted. J. R., Junior. [A] “Bucaning” is a method of preserving meats, &c., partly by drying and partly by smoking with the _embers_ of wood fires, and retaining all the palatable and nutritious juices. It must have had its origin with the rude hunters of the forests, who, for want of a chimney, laid sticks across, at a proper distance from the heat. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 ESSENCES 5 DRIED AND SMOKED MEATS. Hung Beef――A Shropshire Sirloin 6 Fine Breakfast Bacon 7 Melton-Hunt Beef 8 Beef’s Heart Smoked 10 Ulverston Red Flank 11 Beef Hams 13 Hambro’ Rough Beef _ib._ Breslau Beef Smoked 14 Whitehaven Corned Beef 15 Neats’ Tongues Dried 16 Neats’ Tongues Smoked 17 A Boar’s Head 18 Westphalia Hams 19 Westphalia Hams eclipsed 20 Excellent Hams Smoked 21 A Norfolk Chine _ib._ Leicestershire Spiced Bacon 23 Smoked Porker’s Head _ib._ Bath Chaps 24 Dutch Beef 25 Haunch of Mutton as Venison 26 Thigh of Mutton l’Diable 27 Welsh Mutton Hams 28 Dried Mutton, as of the Ardennes Forest 29 To Pickle a Tongue 30 Hambro’ Pickle 31 Pickle for Pork _ib._ Preservative General Pickle 32 Superior Pickle for Pork and Meats _ib._ Collared Breast of Mutton 33 A Perpetual Goose 34 FISH. Nutriment in Fish 36 Welsh Dried Salmon 37 Fine Dutch Salmon 39 Very superior Kippered Salmon 40 Rich Collared Salmon 43 Kippered Mackerel 45 May Fish 46 Superior Pressed Mackerel 47 British American Salmon 48 Superior Bloaters 50 Prime Kippered Herrings 52 Superior Spiced Kippered Bloaters 53 Cape Breton Herrings 55 Aberdeen Reds _ib._ Speldings 56 Smoked Sprats _ib._ Aldborough Dried Sprats 58 British Anchovies 59 Turbot Fins, as Shark’s 60 River Eels Smoked 62 Gorgona Fish Smoked 63 Italian Cincerelli 65 Smoked Conger Eels 66 Collared Conger Eels 68 Dried Conger Eels, high flavoured 69 Brown Caviare 70 White Caviare 71 Cavis of Mackerel 72 Herring Rich Pickle 73 Herrings Caveach 74 Yorkshire Pressed Pork _ib._ Birmingham and Oxford Tripe 75 Calf’s Head Brawn 76 Portable Soup 78 Richest Portable Soup _ib._ Smoked Geese 79 Bucaned Beef Kidneys 80 „ Beef Udder 81 „ Calf’s Liver 82 „ Beef Skirts 83 Russian Polony 87 German Saveloys 89 Jersey Black Puddings 90 Marinated Salmon 92 „ Tench and Carp 93 „ Shrimps 96 „ Trout and Grayling 97 „ Silver Eels 99 „ Superior Rich Eels 100 „ Herrings 103 „ Sprats 104 „ Cutlets 125 „ Veal 126 „ Salmon Roes 127 Side of Venison Collared 109 The other side Smoked 111 Young Pig Collared 112 POTTED MEATS AND FISH. Potted Ox Cheek 84 „ Shrimps l’Diable 85 „ Pigeons 86 „ Smelts 105 „ Lobsters 106 „ Crabs 107 „ Hare 114 „ Moor Game 115 „ Snipes and Woodcocks 116 „ Trout 117 „ Eels 118 „ Shrimps 119 „ Beef as Hare 120 „ Neats’ Tongues 121 „ Beef’s Heart 122 „ Venison 124 Pickled Smelts 101 „ Lobsters 102 Essence of Lobsters 127 „ Shrimps 128 „ Anchovies 129 Tomato Paste _ib._ „ Catsup 130 Bengal Chetna 131 An excellent Fish Sauce _ib._ A Provocative 132 French Sausage Spice _ib._ PRESERVED FRUITS. To prepare Syrup for Preserving Fruit _ib._ Preserved West India Green Ginger, a close imitation 134 „ Currants for Tarts 135 „ Tomatoes 136 „ Cucumbers 137 „ Green-gage Plums 138 „ Peaches and Nectarines 138 „ Lemons 139 „ Apricots 140 „ Damsons _ib._ „ Morello Cherries 141 „ Barberries in Sprigs and Bunches 142 „ Hambro’ Grapes preserved whole _ib._ „ Golden Pippins 143 „ Raspberry Marmalade 144 „ Jam of Morello Cherries _ib._ „ Walnuts 149 „ Apple Marmalade 150 PICKLES. Pickled Red Cabbage, Halton Castle Receipt 145 „ Green Samphire 146 „ Cauliflowers _ib._ „ White Mushrooms 147 „ Silver Onions 148 „ Red Currants 151 „ Celery _ib._ „ Grapes 152 „ Codlins 154 „ Barberries _ib._ „ Asparagus 155 „ Gherkins 156 „ Piccalilli 157 „ Lemon Mangoes 159 „ Lemon Pickle 160 „ Mangoes 161 „ Green Walnuts 163 „ Walnuts Pickled White 164 „ Peaches and Nectarines 165 „ Golden Pippins _ib._ „ Nasturtiums 166 „ Red Beet-roots 167 „ Button Mushrooms 168 Pickled Green Parsley 169 Walnut Catsup 170 Mushroom Catsup 171 Tomato Catsup 172 Celery, Crab Salad 173 Elder-Flower Vinegar _ib._ Tarragon Vinegar _ib._ White-Gooseberry Vinegar 174 Syrup d’Orgeat――Paris _ib._ An excellent Curry-powder 175 INTRODUCTION. AN APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND SMOKING. I RECOMMEND this apparatus, having, for many years, employed exactly such an one in my own business. THE CHIMNEY should be three brick walls of light structure, a back and two sides, to be run up to the height of about nine feet from a paved floor. It must be open in front for a yard high from the bottom, and then a wooden door-frame must be put in, to carry a door five feet high, or, preferably, two doors, each two feet six inches, one above the other, the advantage of which will be seen when you come to make use of it. Above this door there must be brick-work again, for one foot higher, and then the top must be covered over. The inside of the chimney must be one yard wide, and two feet six inches deep, that is, from the front to the back. On each side there must be fixed a framework of wood, with strips one inch square, nailed across at the distance of six inches apart, these reaching from the bottom of the door-frame and terminating within a foot of the top of the chimney; on these strips will rest your spits or rods when laden with fish. Six inches from the top, two or three iron bars, with movable hooks running on them, must be fixed in the brickwork, which will be able to sustain the weight of sides of bacon, hams, salmon, &c. &c. A sheet of strong wire-work, or a plate of sheet-iron, perforated with many holes half an inch in diameter, must be fixed upon the bottom of the door frame. This will distribute the smoke in its ascent, and receive any small fish that may fall from the spits while being smoked. Six inches from the top of the chimney a wooden pipe six inches square must be introduced, to carry the smoke out of the room or shed, and in this must be put a valve or slide, which, when shut, will increase the volume of vapour in the chimney, and when opened will discharge the same; thus you will have the force of the fumigation completely under your command. A door of light sheet-iron should be hung at the open space at the bottom of the front, and so as to be let down or kept open at your pleasure, by means of which the heat from your fire may be reduced as necessity may require, by letting in the cold air, and this can be let down partially or totally when it is desirable to increase the draught. This iron door must not reach quite to the floor, but leaving about six inches open, to keep a small current of air always in the chimney. This construction has many advantages over the old-fashioned close-fronted chimneys. THE SPITS, OR RODS, must be of any tough wood, perfectly round and a little pointed at one end, half an inch diameter and three feet long. These are for bloaters, &c. For sprats and other small fish, you must have spits of iron wire, also a yard long, and pointed bluntly. For split mackerel, kippered herrings, &c., you must have deal rods of inch square wood, and with _wrought_-iron sprigs, two inches long, driven through them, and protruding on the other side, on which the shoulders of the various sorts of fish must be fixed. THE HORSES, on which the rods must rest while drying the fish, must be plainly made by fixing two upright posts, in figure like the Roman capital letter T _inverted_, thus ┴ at the distance of three feet from each other, by means of two or three connecting rails. The posts may be six feet long, with strips of wood nailed across them six inches apart; on these will rest all the different sorts of rods when loaded with fish, and will correspond with the wood-work inside of your chimney. FUEL FOR SMOKING. Oak lops, or the extreme branches of that tree, such as charcoal is made from in the country places; it may be procured in large towns from manufacturers of rustic chairs and garden seats. Dried fern and short grass, the latter being pared off the heaths and short pastures, very thin, and well dried in the air. Beech and birch chips, or sycamore, are used with all fine goods. Peat or bog-earth must be procured on account of its preservative and deodorising quality; it imparts a wonderfully mild and truly acceptable flavour mixed along with other fuel. Oak sawdust must be from the dry, old, _heart_ of oak trees; the outside slabs will not do, as being full of sour sap. It is needless to say all these should be quite dry when taken into your stock, and kept so, for it will not suit your purpose to have a damp fume in your chimney. PRESERVATIVES. All the _manufactured_ white edible salts impart a bitter taste to meats and fish cured by them, particularly if the same are to be kept many months. This is the reason why bay salt is so much used in part, along with the common salt, and if bay salt was less expensive, it would be universally used, and alone. I cannot recommend too strongly the use of the _rock_ salt of the Cheshire mines; it acts similarly to the bay salt, and is by no means expensive. FOOTS OF SUGAR can be got from the wholesale grocers, and is much preferable to the common sorts sold. It is nearly double the strength, and is not so rank and mawkish in the flavour it gives. There is a quantity of it at the bottom of every cask of the West India sugar when first opened. It is preferable to treacle in many respects. To store your goods when cured, and to keep them in the best possible state of preservation, there is nothing so well adapted, and proved by experience to be effectual, as malt cooms, which should be contained in chests and boxes, with little bags of pulverised charcoal here and there distributed throughout. Hanging up hams, tongues, smoked meats, &c., in paper or calico bags, from the ceilings of kitchens, and all habitable rooms with fires in them, is an old, but very thoughtless,