“Fill the heart full of whichever of these stuffings is preferred, but do not press it in tight. Skewer over the top several thin slices of fat pork, dredge it with flour, and bake it one hour and a half in a good oven. Make gravy of a cup of good soup or broth, poured into the pan in which the heart was baked, and thickened with a tea-spoonful of brown thickening. Many people like red currant jelly made hot and served with it as sauce. The platter and plates must be very hot and the heart covered as it goes to table.
“The next day it can be warmed over by cutting it into slices and gently stewing it in a rich gravy. It is nicer than venison thus prepared.”
When Molly had this written in her book she opened the one Mrs. Welles handed to her and, to select from the many there, read, before copying, the recipes that would be most useful to herself and Mrs. Lennox.
“I see you have preliminary remarks which will be valuable.”
“Yes, my mother’s experience, not my own; but she was a North-of-England woman and thought the London cured meat not worth eating.”
Under the head of general rules Molly read:
Avoid salting meat in hot weather; from October to April is the right season. If forced to do it, however, cut it up and sprinkle it with salt before the animal heat leaves it. If hung even for an hour, there is danger from flies.
In cool weather, meat should hang three or four days to get tender before eating, but be very careful it does not become frost-bitten. In very cold weather, make the salt hot before using it.
The great art in salting meat is to turn it every day carefully, rubbing salt under every flap or double part, and filling all holes with salt wherever a kernel has been cut out, or a skewer has been in.
Use as little salt as will preserve the meat, as it will leave it more juicy and tender. Two ounces of bay salt, two of coarse sugar, and three quarters of a pound of common salt is a good proportion, and is enough for ten or twelve pounds of meat. Do not put on all the salt at once; have it rolled and dried, and use half the first day, and the remainder two or three days after. Then the blood from the first salting must be drained off. Sugar preserves meat as well as salt; hence its use, for it renders less salt necessary, and meat is more tender with it. Saltpetre is only useful for reddening meat, but is apt to harden it; if wanted red, however, take half an ounce of saltpetre and one of coarse sugar; this must be rubbed in the third day after the first slight salting; the common and bay salt the next day.