WHAT TO DO WITH THE OFFAL.
Aside from the pieces of meat into which a hog is usually cut, there will be left as offal the chine or backbone, the jowl, the souse, the liver and lungs, pig’s feet, two spareribs and two short ribs or griskins. Nearly every housekeeper knows what disposition to make of all this, yet too often these wholesome portions of the hog are not utilized to best advantage.
PORK SAUSAGE.
Sausage has formed a highly prized article of food for a good many hundred years. Formed primarily as now, by chopping the raw meat very fine, and adding salt and other flavoring materials, and often meal or bread crumbs, the favorite varieties of to-day might not be considered any improvement over the recipes of the ancient Romans were they to pass judgment on the same. History tells us that these early Italian sausages were made of fresh pork and bacon, chopped fine, with the addition of nuts, and flavored with cumin seed, pepper, bay leaves and various pot herbs. Italy and Germany are still celebrated for their bologna sausages and with many people these smoked varieties are highly prized.
Like pure lard, sausage is too often a scarce article in the market. Most city butchers mix a good deal of beef with the pork, before it is ground, and so have a sausage composed of two sorts of meat, which does not possess that agreeable, sweet, savory taste peculiar to nice fresh pork. The bits of lean, cut off when trimming the pieces of neat meat, the tenderloins, and slices of lean from the shoulders and hams, together with some fat, are first washed nicely, cleared of bone and scraps of skin, then put into the chopper, and ground fine. If a great deal of sausage is wanted, the neat meat is trimmed very close, so as to take all the lean that can be spared from the pieces. Sometimes whole shoulders are cut up and ground. The heads, too, or the fleshy part, make good sausage. Some housekeepers have the livers and “lights,” or lungs, ground up and prepared for sausage, and they make a tolerable substitute. This preparation should be kept separate from the other, however, and be eaten while cold weather lasts, as it will not keep as long as the other kind.
After sausage is properly ground, add salt, sage, rosemary, and red or black pepper to suit the taste. The rosemary may be omitted, but sage is essential. All these articles should be made fine before mixing them with the meat. In order to determine accurately whether the sausage contains enough of these ingredients, cook a little and taste it.
If sausage is to be kept in jars, pack it away closely in them, as soon as it is ground and seasoned, and set the jars, securely closed, in a cool room. But it is much better to provide for smoking some of it, to keep through the spring and early summer. When the entrails are ready, stuff them full with the meat, after which the ends are tied and drawn together, and the sausage hung up in the smokehouse for smoking. This finishes the process of making pork sausage. Put up in this way, it deserves the name of sausage and it makes a dish good enough for any one. It is one of the luxuries of life which may be manufactured at home.
BOLOGNA SAUSAGE.
The popular theory is that these familiar sausages originated in the Italian city of that name, where the American visitor always stops for a bit of “the original.” Many formulas are used in the preparation of bologna sausages, or rather many modifications of a general formula. Lean, fresh meat trimmings are employed and some add a small proportion of heart, all chopped very fine. While being chopped, spices and seasoning are added, with a sufficient quantity of salt. The meat employed is for the most part beef, to which is added some fresh or salted pork. When almost completed, add gradually a small quantity of potato flour and a little water. The mixture being of the proper consistency, stuff in beef casings, tie the ends together into rings of fair length and smoke thoroughly. This accomplished, boil until the sausages rise to the top, when they are ready for use. Some recipes provide for two parts of beef and one part of fat pork and the addition of a little ground coriander seed to the seasoning.