Sucking Pig.
The age at which it ought to be killed is a matter of dispute; some say at twelve days old, others at three weeks; but all agree that the sooner it is cooked after, the better. After the inside is taken out, wash the pig well with cold water. Cut off the feet at the first joint, leaving the skin long enough to turn neatly over. Prepare a stuffing as follows: ½ oz. of mild sage, 2 onions, parboiled and chopped fine, a tea-cup full of grated bread crumbs, 2 oz. of good butter, and some pepper, cayenne and salt; put this into the pig, and carefully sew the slit up. Some cooks baste, at first, with salt and water, and then keep brushing the pig with a brush of feathers, dipped in salad oil. Others tie a piece of butter in muslin, and diligently rub the crackling with it; either is good. It should be dredged with flour, soon after it is put down, and the rubbing with butter or oil never cease, or the skin will not be crisp. The fire should be brisk, and a pig iron used, or the pig will be unequally cooked, for the middle will be burnt up, before the two ends are done. A good-sized one will take two hours. A pig should never go whole to table. Take the spit from the fire, and place it across a dish, then with a sharp knife cut the head off, cut down the back, and slip the spit out. Lay it back to back in your dish, and the ears, one at each end, which ought to be quite crisp. For sauce, clear beef, or veal gravy, with a squeeze of lemon, and, if approved, the brains and liver, or a little of the stuffing out of the pig, mixed in it, also a very little finely chopped sage. Apple sauce and currant sauce are not yet out of fashion for roast pig. Chili or eschalot vinegar is an improvement to pig-sauce. The easiest way is to bake it. (See Baking.)
Venison, Haunch or Shoulder.
This will hang three weeks with care, but must be watched. Wet it as little as possible; a damp cloth, only, should be used to cleanse it. Butter a sheet of kitchen paper, and tie it over the fat side of the joint, then lay over that a paste of about ½ an inch thick of flour and water; tie another sheet of paper over that, fasten all on firmly, and rub butter over the outside paper, that the fire may not catch it. Baste well, and keep up a strong clear fire. A haunch of from 20 to 25 lbs. weight, in a paste, will take from four to five hours, and not be overdone. Half an hour before it is ready take off the coverings, and put it nearer the fire to brown and froth. Baste with fresh butter, and lightly dredge it with flour. For sauce, currant jelly in heated port wine, in one boat, and clear drawn, unspiced gravy, in another. (See Gravies.) Raspberry vinegar may be used in making sauce for venison. Some epicures like eschalots or small onions, served with venison, hare, or any meat, eaten with sweet sauce.—The shoulder, breast, and neck, are all roasted, but the two latter are best in pies; and if lean, may be used in soup.—Serve French beans, and currant jelly.
Fawn.
This should, like a sucking-pig, be dressed soon after it is killed. When quite young, it is trussed and stuffed like hare. But it is best, when large enough, cut in quarters, and dressed like lamb. The hind quarter is the best. It may be half roasted, and then hashed like hare or venison.—Or: in pies the same as venison. It may also be baked. Venison sauce.
Veal
Must have a strong and brisk fire. It must not only be well done through, but be of a nice brown. For the fillet a stuffing of forcemeat made thus: two parts of stale bread-crumbs, one part suet, marrow or fresh butter, a little parsley boiled for a minute and chopped fine, 2 tea-spoonsful of grated lemon peel, a little nutmeg, a very little cayenne and some salt, the whole to be worked to a proper consistence, with yolks of 2 or 3 eggs. Many things may be used in flavouring stuffing, such as grated ham, beef, sausages, pickled oysters, anchovy, sweet herbs, eschalots, mushrooms, truffles, morels, currie powder and cayenne. The fillet should be covered with paper, and securely fastened in a nice shape. Baste well, and half an hour before you take it up, remove the paper, and bring the meat nearer the fire, to brown it. Garnish with slices of lemon. When in the dish, pour some thin melted butter over it, to mix with its own gravy. A fillet of 15 lbs. weight will require 4 hours' roasting. Serve sausages, ham, or bacon, and greens.
Shoulder of Veal.
Stuff it, using more suet or butter than for the fillet. Serve and garnish the same. From three hours to three and a half.