This is a very nice and very pretty dish for a supper table. Have ready one or two dozen of fresh soft milk biscuit. Split them, and take a very little of the soft crumb out of each biscuit, so as to make a slight hollow. Butter the biscuits with very nice fresh butter, and fill them liberally with grated ham or tongue. Stick round the inside of the edges, full sprigs of pepper-grass, or curled parsley, or the green tops of celery. Arrange the sprigs closely and handsomely, so as to project out all round the sides, forming a green border or fringe. We highly recommend biscuit sandwiches.
POTTED HAM.—
Take some cold ham, slice it, and mince it small, fat and lean together. Then pound it in a mortar; seasoning it as you proceed with cayenne pepper, powdered mace, and powdered nutmeg. Then fill with it a large deep pan, and set it in an oven for half an hour. Afterwards pack it down hard in a stone jar, and fill up the jar with lard. Cover it closely, and paste down a thick paper over the jar. If sufficiently seasoned, it will keep well in winter; and is convenient for sandwiches, or on the tea-table. A jar of this will be found useful to travelers in remote places.
Tongue may be potted as above.
TO PREPARE BACON.—
All pieces of pork that, after pickling, are dried and smoked, come under the denomination of bacon; except the hind-quarters or legs, and they are always called ham, and are justly considered superior to any other part of the animal, and bring a higher price. The shoulders or fore-quarters, the sides or flitches, the jowl or head, and all the other parts, are designated as bacon; and in some places they erroneously give that name to the whole animal, if cured, or preserved by the process of smoking.
To prepare bacon for being cooked, examine it well, and scrape it carefully, and trim off all unsightly parts. If the fat is yellow, the meat is rusty or tainted, and not fit to eat. So, also, if on the lean there are brownish or blackish spots. All sorts of food, if kept too long, should be thrown away at once.
If perfectly good, prepare the bacon for cooking, by washing it well, and then soaking it for several hours in a pan full of cold water, removing the water once or twice during the process. If the bacon is salt and hard, soak it all night, changing the water at bed-time, and early in the morning.