How a Pig was roasted on a Sugar Plantation.—The pig, having been carefully cleaned and dressed, was wiped dry, part of the liver and heart chopped fine, mixed with bread crumbs, savory herbs, salt, and pepper, and sewed up. While this was being prepared a fire was built outdoors, and when burned down so as to secure a bright, large bed of coals, a long, smooth stick was run through the pig lengthwise, and smaller ones skewered the legs to the body. A piece of nice fat pork was fastened on the stick where it entered the head. Thus firmly fixed, one of the servants held the long stick with the pig on it over the fire, slowly turning it round and round as it began to cook; or, if he was needed elsewhere, one end of the stick was driven into the ground, close to the coals, but only for a few minutes, when he returned to continue to turn it round over the huge bed of coals. In much less time than we need to cook a pig in our convenient kitchens, the dweller under the cocoa-nut trees was beautifully browned, crisp, and tender. In cooking, much of the fat from the pork filtered through, and having given juice and relish to the meat, had, with a good deal of fat from the pig, fallen into the ashes around the bed of coals, leaving the meat rich and of peculiar sweetness and delicacy, without being too greasy.
We had not the good fortune to partake of it, but this, with others cooked in a similar manner, was pronounced the most delicious meat ever tasted, and we found no difficulty in believing it. Some of our Northern cooks, with any amount of “modern improvements,” might try this experiment with great success.
Wild game, birds, rabbits, ducks, etc., are often cooked in a similar manner. All wild birds are apt to be very dry, and if a thin piece of pork is tied about them, while baking or roasting, till it becomes brown and crisp, then removed, and the bird allowed to brown delicately, it is a wonderful addition to the juiciness and flavor of the game.
Good Sausage Meat.—Take two thirds ham and one third fat pork, season well with nine teaspoonfuls of pepper, the same of salt, three of powdered sage, and one of thyme or summer savory to every five pounds of meat (not heaping teaspoonfuls, remember); warm the meat enough so that you can mix it well with the hands; then pack in jars. When needed, make up in small cakes and fry in a little butter, or simply alone. But they must not be covered over, or they will fall to pieces. Some like a little cinnamon added. Keep where it is cool, but not damp.
A Dutch Dish.—Pare and slice as many potatoes as are needed for the size of your family; put them into a deep dish; pour in as much milk or cream as will fill the dish and not boil over. Stir in a little salt and pepper; lay some slices of salt pork cut thin over the top; and bake two hours. Be careful and not put in too much salt, as the pork will season it almost enough.
SALADS AND OMELETS.
Chicken Salad.—Well-fattened chickens, of medium size, tender and delicate, make better salad than large, overgrown ones. Put them on to cook in the morning, and save the water they are boiled in for soup. When cold, remove the skin and cut the flesh in pieces, the size you prefer. Some like the meat very coarse, others choose it quite fine. This is entirely a matter of taste. When cut up, throw over the dish a towel slightly damped in cold water, to keep the meat from drying. Take the best celery you can get, and cut it of the size you wish. The “fancy cooks” cut both celery and chicken in bits about one inch long and half an inch thick, but we think the salad better cut finer. When the celery is cut, put it between clean cloths to dry perfectly, and then prepare the dressing. For dressing for two chickens, take three fourths of a bottle of the purest salad-oil or thick sweet cream, two scant table-spoonfuls of the best mustard, the yelks of two raw eggs and of twelve hard-boiled ones. Put the eggs to be boiled in a saucepan of cold water over a quick fire; bring to a boil, and let them boil hard ten minutes, then drop them into cold water. When cool, remove the shells. Break the raw eggs, and drop the yelks into a dish large enough to make all the dressing in; beat them, stirring the same way, for ten minutes; then slowly add the mustard, mix it with the eggs thoroughly, then add a teaspoonful of the best vinegar, and, when this is well mixed, add the oil, a drop at a time, stirring constantly and always the same way. Then rub the yelks of the hard-boiled eggs very smooth, and stir in as lightly as possible a teacup of vinegar; pour it slowly into the first mixture, stirring with a silver fork. Now season the chicken and celery with salt and pepper, and as soon as ready for use pour on the dressing. If set where it is too cold in cold weather, the dressing will curdle and be ruined.
Italian Chicken Salad.—Make a dressing in the proportion of the yelks of three hard-boiled eggs, rubbed fine, one salt-spoonful of salt, one of mustard, and one of cayenne pepper, one of white sugar, four table-spoonfuls of salad-oil, and two table-spoonfuls of vinegar. Simmer this dressing over the fire, but don’t let it boil. Stir constantly while over the fire. Then take a sufficient quantity of the white meat of cold chicken for this quantity of dressing, or increase in this proportion to the desired quantity; pull the white meat into small flakes, pile it up in a dish, and pour the dressing on it. Take two heads of fine, fresh lettuce that have been washed and laid in water, take out the best part, cut it up, and arrange in a heap around the chicken, heaped in the middle of the dish, and on the top of this ridge place the whites of eggs, cut in rings and laid in form of a chain. A portion of the lettuce to be helped with each plate of chicken.
Lobster Salad.—Boil the lobsters half an hour; when cold, take from the shell; remove the vein in the back, which is not good. Two heads of lettuce, one cup of melted butter, two table-spoonfuls of mustard mixed with a little vinegar, is sufficient for six pounds of lobster; after being taken from the shell, salt and pepper to your taste, remembering that more can be added if not enough; but if too much, it is not so easily rectified. Chop them together and put in the salad-dish. Beat six eggs with a teacup of vinegar, put it over the stove to thicken, stirring it all the time; when cold, spread over the lobster.
Potato Salad.—Cut ten or twelve cold boiled potatoes into slices from a quarter to half an inch thick; put into a salad-bowl with four table-spoonfuls of tarragon or plain vinegar, six table-spoonfuls of best salad-oil, one teaspoonful of minced parsley, and pepper and salt to taste; stir well that all be thoroughly mixed. It should be made two or three hours before needed on the table. Anchovies, olives, or any pickles may be added to this salad, as also slices of cold beef, chicken, or turkey, if desired.