Part 95 (2/2)
_Time_.--2 hours. _Average cost_, 1s. 6d.
_Sufficient_ for 6 or 7 persons.
_Seasonable_ from September to March.
PIG'S PETt.i.tOES.
832. INGREDIENTS.--A thin slice of bacon, 1 onion, 1 blade of mace, 6 peppercorns, 3 or 4 sprigs of thyme, 1 pint of gravy, pepper and salt to taste, thickening of b.u.t.ter and flour.
_Mode_.--Put the liver, heart, and pett.i.toes into a stewpan with the bacon, mace, peppercorns, thyme, onion, and gravy, and simmer these gently for 1/4 hour; then take out the heart and liver, and mince them very fine. Keep stewing the feet until quite tender, which will be in from 20 minutes to 1/2 hour, reckoning from the time that they boiled up first; then put back the minced liver, thicken the gravy with a little b.u.t.ter and flour, season with pepper and salt, and simmer over a gentle fire for 5 minutes, occasionally stirring the contents. Dish the mince, split the feet, and arrange them round alternately with sippets of toasted bread, and pour the gravy in the middle.
_Time_.--Altogether 40 minutes.
_Sufficient_ for 3 or 4 persons.
_Seasonable_ from September to March.
TO PICKLE PORK.
833. INGREDIENTS.--1/4 lb. of saltpetre; salt.
_Mode_.--As pork does not keep long without being salted, cut it into pieces of a suitable size as soon as the pig is cold. Rub the pieces of pork well with salt, and put them into a pan with a sprinkling of it between each piece: as it melts on the top, strew on more. Lay a coa.r.s.e cloth over the pan, a board over that, and a weight on the board, to keep the pork down in the brine. If excluded from the air, it will continue good for nearly 2 years.
_Average cost_, 10d. per lb. for the prime parts.
_Seasonable_.--The best time for pickling meat is late in the autumn.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE HOG.--A singular circ.u.mstance in the domestic history of the hog, is the extent of its distribution over the surface of the earth; being found even in insulated places, where the inhabitants are semi-barbarous, and where the wild species is entirely unknown. The South-Sea islands, for example, were found on their discovery to be well stocked with a small black hog; and the traditionary belief of the people was that these animals were coeval with the origin of themselves.
Yet they possessed no knowledge of the wild boar, or any other animal of the hog kind, from which the domestic breed might be supposed to be derived. In these islands the hog is the princ.i.p.al quadruped, and the fruit of the bread-tree is its princ.i.p.al food, although it is also fed with yams, eddoes, and other vegetables. This nutritious diet, which it has in great abundance, is, according to Foster, the reason of its flesh being so delicious, so full of juice, and so rich in fat, which is not less delicate to the taste than the finest b.u.t.ter.
TO BOIL PICKLED PORK.
834. INGREDIENTS.--Pork; water.
_Mode_.--Should the pork be very salt, let it remain in water about 2 hours before it is dressed; put it into a saucepan with sufficient cold water to cover it, let it gradually come to a boil, then gently simmer until quite tender. Allow ample time for it to cook, as nothing is more disagreeable than underdone pork, and when boiled fast, the meat becomes hard. This is sometimes served with boiled poultry and roast veal, instead of bacon: when tender, and not over salt, it will be found equally good.
_Time_.--A piece of pickled pork weighing 2 lbs., 1-1/4 hour; 4 lbs., rather more than 2 hours.
_Average cost_, 10d. per lb. for the primest parts.
_Seasonable_ at any time.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE HOG.--By what nation and in what period the hog was reclaimed, is involved in the deepest obscurity. So far back as we have any records of history, we find notices of this animal, and of its flesh being used as the food of man. By some nations, however, its flesh was denounced as unclean, and therefore prohibited to be used, whilst by others it was esteemed as a great delicacy. By the Mosaic law it was forbidden to be eaten by the Jews, and the Mahometans hold it in utter abhorrence. Dr. Kitto, however, says that there does not appear to be any reason in the law of Moses why the hog should be held in such peculiar abomination. There seems nothing to have prevented the Jews, if they had been so inclined, to rear pigs for sale, or for the use of the land. In the Talmud there are some indications that this was actually done; and it was, probably, for such purposes that the herds of swine mentioned in the New Testament were kept, although it is usual to consider that they were kept by the foreign settlers in the land. Indeed, the story which accounts for the peculiar aversion of the Hebrews to the hog, a.s.sumes that it did not originate until about 130 years before Christ, and that, previously, some Jews were in the habit of rearing hogs for the purposes indicated.
PORK PIES (Warwicks.h.i.+re Recipe).
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