Sausages.—(a) Take a quantity of pig’s meat, remove all nerves and skin with great care; then chop it as finely as possible. Put it in an earthenware pan, add to it garlic, parsley, mint, thyme, marjoram, and burnet finely minced; pepper and cloves powdered; and salt, all in such proportions as taste may suggest. Work the whole with a wooden spoon for some time, so as to get all the ingredients well mixed; then add a tumblerful of white wine for every 2 lb. meat, and work it for some time longer. Have some skins perfectly cleaned, rub them well all over with lemon juice, and put them in water with plenty of lemon juice squeezed into it. Take them out one at a time, dry them, fill them with the meat, and tie them in lengths of about 3 in. The sausages should then be hung up to dry in a strong current of air for some days. These sausages are best eaten boiled with cabbages or greens. (The G. C.)
(b) Beef sausages are prepared in exactly the same manner as pork. The best part to use is beef steak. To 1 lb. of this use ¼ lb. beef suet or other good fat, ¼ pint stock, or water, 1½ oz. sifted breadcrumbs, 1 large teaspoonful salt, ½ teaspoonful dried and sifted parsley mixed with a similar quantity of thyme, and 1 small teaspoonful salt. If these sausages are properly made and cooked, they will, when cut, give plenty of gravy; they are considered somewhat less rich than those made of pork.
(c) 1½ lb. pigmeat cut from the griskin, without any skin, 1½ lb. veal, 1½ lb. beef suet, the yolks and whites of 5 eggs, 1 dessertspoonful sifted sage (after being well dried), pepper and salt to taste. Chop the meat into small pieces, pound it together in a marble mortar till it is soft and tender, chop the suet very fine, and when the eggs are well beaten together (after the specks are taken out) pour the liquid over the pounded meat and chopped suet, kneading it well together with a clean hand, throwing in the sifted sage and pepper and salt from a coarse pepper-box during the operation, so as to let them impregnate the whole mass without being predominant in any part of it. Press the whole, when well mixed together, into a wide-mouthed jar, and keep it from the air in a cold place; roll the sausages on a floured board, and use very little grease in frying them, as they will be almost fat enough to fry themselves, with the aid of a frying-pan. They should be made into small flat cakes, about the size of a five-shilling piece. Lovelock’s sausage-making machine is very useful.
(d) To each lb. veal put ½ lb. ham, in equal quantities of fat and lean. Season with ½ teaspoonful salt, a whole one of pepper, a pinch of nutmeg and sweet herbs; mix with 1 oz. sifted breadcrumbs, and moisten with 4 tablespoonfuls stock made from trimmings of the veal and ham. Proceed as for pork sausages.
Shrimps.—To preserve shrimps in a dried state, they are boiled for ½ hour with frequent sprinkling of salt; then spread out on hard dry ground, with frequent turning, to dry and bleach for 3 or 4 days. They are then trampled to remove the shells, and are winnowed and bagged.
Shrimps, Potted.—Take some freshly boiled shrimps and half their weight of butter, pick out the meat from the tails, and chop it up fine; take the rest of the shrimps and pound them up with a little of the butter until reduced to a smooth paste, then add the meat from the tails and pound all together, seasoning well with pounded mace, grated nutmeg, and cayenne pepper; put it into pots, and cover with clarified butter.
Smoked Geese.—When geese are cheap, take as many as you please, only seeing that they are fresh, and not in the least damp or muggy; then cleanly draw, pick from pen-feathers, and wipe well out with a cloth dipped in strong salt and water; after which immerse in the following (quantities for 6 geese):—2 lb. coarse sugar, 1 lb. bay salt, 3 oz. saltpetre, 1 handful finely beaten sage, 3 shallots, 2 handfuls crushed bay leaves; boil together 10 minutes, and afterwards simmer ½ hour; when cold, pour over the geese, which must be turned often, and, if possible, kept covered with the pickle; let remain 48 hours; take out and let them drip (do not wipe), and rub cayenne pepper plentifully inside each until it adheres; smoke 3 days and nights in a cool smoke, and hang each up in a calico bag in the kitchen; when wanted for table, dissect them, and broil over a clear fire.
Smoked Neats’ Tongues.—Take 6 tongues and rub well with sugar for 2 days; then rub well with common salt and saltpetre for 2 days more, apart from the sugar; then take 1 qt. each of water and porter, ¼ lb. saltpetre, 2 lb. bay salt, 2 lb. common salt, and with the sugar first used make a hot pickle, which skim well, and pour over the tongues laid in a deep narrow tin pan completely covered; let lie for 8 days more, and they will be fit for use in any way; if to be smoked, wipe them well, and turn in the chimney 4 or 5 times for 5 days.
Sprats.—Pick out the largest, and then the second size, rejecting the remainder, or refuse, which, however, may be useful to pot. Put into baskets, and well wash in salt and water; then set to drain an hour, and afterwards plunge into a pickle that will float an egg: the smaller ones may be taken out of pickle in 4 hours, and the large ones in 6 hours, and be set to drain; which done, proceed to stick them on frames, the eye being pierced by each nail, and then, with a steady hand, put into the chimney. Set on a gentle heat for ½ hour, and let it be succeeded by a strong smoke for 12 hours longer; when cold, they will be fit for immediate consumption; but if you want them to keep a month or so, you must continue the smoke on them for 30 hours, or until they become a dark brown colour; and if for packing, they should be placed as bloaters, keeping the same-sized ones together in a dry room, and after a few hours they will have sweated in the packages, and will be very mellow and fine flavoured.
Sprats, Pickled.—For this purpose the sprats must be quite fresh and unsalted. Clean, take off the heads, and thoroughly wash them. Drain, and put in layers and rows, heads and tails, into china-lined earthen pie-dishes, wide, well glazed, or stoneware crocks, with whole pepper, allspice, chili-pods, and bay leaves; of the latter sparingly. Dissolve 1 spoonful salt in hot water, pour it over the fish, and add vinegar to cover them completely. Cover and bake slowly for 1-2 hours, according to quantity, till all the fish are well cooked through. Take off the cover and let them cool before putting away for use. Add a little more vinegar if too dry. A few shallots or slices of silverskin onions can be added if approved of. Sprats pickled thus should come to the table in the vessel they are cooked in, and removed in layers. In cold weather, if kept for a week or two, the bones will be found to be quite dissolved by the action of the vinegar. Fresh herrings, trout, salmon peal, eels, and a variety of fresh-water fish can be thus prepared.