A pig ought not to be under four nor over six weeks old, and ought to be plump and fat. In the city, the butcher will sell you a shoat already prepared, but in the country, we must prepare our own pig for roasting. As soon as the pig is killed, throw it into a tub of cold water to make it tender; as soon as it is perfectly, cold, take it by the hind leg and plunge into scalding water, and shake it about until the hair can all be removed, by the handful at a time. When the hair has all been removed, rub from the tail up to the end of the nose with a coarse cloth. Take off the hoofs and wash out the inside of the ears and nose until perfectly clean. Hang the pig up, by the hind legs, stretched open so as to take out the entrails; wash well with water with some bicarbonate of soda dissolved in it; rinse again and again and let it hang an hour or more to drip. Wrap it in a coarse, dry cloth, when taken down, and lay in a cold cellar, or on ice, as it is better not to cook the pig the same day it is killed. Say kill and clean it late in the evening and roast it the next morning. Prepare the stuffing of the liver, heart and haslets, stewed, seasoned and chopped fine. Mix with these an equal quantity of boiled Irish potatoes, mashed, or bread crumbs, and season with hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine, parsley and sage, or thyme, chopped fine, pepper and salt. Scald the pig on the inside, dry it and rub with pepper and salt, fill with the stuffing and sew up. Bend the forelegs under the body, the hind legs forward, and skewer to keep in position. Place in a large baking pan and pour over it one quart of boiling water. Rub fresh butter all over the pig and sprinkle pepper and salt over it, and put a bunch of parsley and thyme, or sage, in the water. Turn a pan down over it and let it simmer in a hot oven till perfectly tender. Then take off the pan that covers the pig, rub it with more butter and let brown, basting it frequently with the hot gravy. If the hot water and gravy cook down too much, add more hot water and baste. When of a fine brown, and tender and done all through, cover the edges of a large, flat china dish with fresh green parsley and place the pig, kneeling, in the center of the dish. Place in its mouth a red apple, or an ear of green corn, and serve hot with the gravy; or serve cold with grated horse-radish and pickle. Roast pig ought to be evenly cooked, through and through, as underdone pork of any kind, size or age is exceedingly unwholesome. It ought also to be evenly and nicely browned on the outside, as the tender skin when cooked is crisp and palatable. It is easily scorched, therefore keep a pig, while roasting, covered till tender and almost done.
Tongue.
The tongues should be put into the pickle with the hams; boil after three or four weeks, pickle in vinegar which has been sweetened. Add a tablespoon ground mustard to a pint of vinegar. Will keep months. They should be pickled whole. Also nice when first cooked without pickling. Slice cold, to be eaten with or without mayonnaise dressing. Sliced thin, and placed between thin slices of bread, make delicious sandwiches. Chopped fine, with hard-boiled eggs and mayonnaise, make nice sandwiches. Many boil pork and beef tongues fresh. An old brown tongue is an abomination. The saltpeter gives the pink look canned tongues have; the salt and sugar flavor nicely.
When fresh, tongues are nice for mince pies. They may be corned with the hams and boiled and skinned and hot vinegar seasoned with salt and pepper poured over them; or are nice sliced with cold potatoes, garnished with cress or lettuce and a cream salad dressing poured over them. Cream salad dressing: Stir thoroughly together 1 teaspoon sugar, six tablespoons thick sweet cream and 2 tablespoons vinegar, salt and pepper or mustard to taste. The cream and vinegar should be very cold, and the vinegar added to the cream a little at a time, or it will curdle. Stir till smooth and creamy.
Souse.
Take off the horny parts of feet by dipping in hot water and pressing against them with a knife. Singe off hair, let soak in cold water for 24 hours, then pour on boiling water, scrape thoroughly, let stand in salt and water a few hours; before boiling wrap each foot in a clean white bandage, cord securely to keep skin from bursting, which causes the gelatine to escape in the water. Boil four hours. Leave in bandage until cold. If you wish to pickle them, put in a jar, add some of the boiling liquor, add enough vinegar to make a pleasant sour, add a few whole peppers. Very nice cold. If you want it hot, put some of the pickle and feet in frying pan. When boiling, thicken with flour and serve hot.—[Nina Gorton.
See that the feet are perfectly clean, the toes chopped off and every particle cleanly scraped, washed and wiped. Boil for three hours continually, or until every particle falls apart, drain from liquid, pick out all the bones, chop slightly, return to the liquid, add ½ cup vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar, pepper, salt and a dash of nutmeg. (Do not have too much liquid.) Boil up once more and turn all out into a mold, press lightly, and cut cold.—[H. M. Gee.
Thoroughly clean the pig’s feet and knock off the horny part with a hatchet. Pour boiling water over them twice and pour it off, then put them on to cook in plenty of water. Do not salt the water. Boil until very tender, then take out the feet, pack in a jar, sprinkle each layer with salt, whole pepper and whole cloves, and cover with equal portions of vinegar and the broth in which the feet were boiled. Put a plate over the top with a weight to keep the souse under the vinegar. If there remains any portion of the broth, strain it and let stand until cold, remove the fat and clarify the broth with a beaten white of egg. It will be then ready for blancmange or lemon jelly and is very delicate.
Scrapple.
Take hog’s tongue, heart, liver, all bones and refuse trimmings (some use ears, snout and lights, I do not), soak all bloody pieces and wash them carefully, use also all clean skins, trimmed from lard. Put into a kettle and cover with water, boil until tender and bones drop loose, then cut in sausage cutter while hot, strain liquor in which it was boiled, and thicken with good corn mush meal, boil it well, stirring carefully to prevent scorching. This mush must be well cooked and quite stiff, so that a stick will stand in it. When no raw taste is left, stir in the chopped meat and season to taste with salt, pepper and herb, sage or sweet marjoram, or anything preferred. When the meat is thoroughly mixed all through the mush, and seasoning is satisfactory, dip out into pans of convenient size, to cool. Better lift off fire and stir carefully lest it scorch. When cold, serve in slices like cheese, or fry like mush (crisp both sides) for breakfast, serving it with nice tomato catsup. It tastes very much like fried oysters. Some prefer half buckwheat meal and half corn. To keep it, do not let it freeze, and if not covered with grease melt some lard and pour over, or it will mold. This ought to be sweet and good for a month or more in winter, but will crumble and fry soft if it freezes.—[Mrs. R. E. Griffith.