CHAPTER II.

MARKETING AND THE CARE OF MEATS.

Every young woman, at some period of her life, may need the instructions of this chapter. Thousands will have the immediate care of buying meats for the family; and even those who are not themselves obliged to go to market, should have the knowledge which will enable them to direct their servants what and how to buy, and to judge whether the household, under their management, is properly served or not. Nothing so thoroughly insures the intelligent obedience of orders, as evidence that the person ordering knows exactly what is wanted.

The directions given in this and the ensuing chapters on meats, were carefully written, first in Cincinnati, with the counsel and advice of business men practically engaged in such matters. They have been recently rewritten in Hartford, Conn., after consultation with intelligent butchers and grocers.

MARKETING.

BEEF.

The animal, when slaughtered, should be bled very thoroughly. The care taken by the Jews in this and other points draws custom from other sects to their markets. The skin is tanned for leather, and the fat is used for candles and other purposes. The tail is used for soups, and the liver, heart, and tripe are also used for cooking. The body is split into two parts, through the backbone, and each half is divided as marked in the drawing on following page. There are diverse modes of cutting and naming the parts, butchers in New England, in New York, in the South, and in the West, all making some slight differences; but the following is the most common method.

In selecting _Beef_, choose that which has a loose grain, easily yielding to pressure, of a clear red, with whitish fat. If the lean is purplish, and the fat yellow, it is poor beef. Beef long kept turns a darker color than fresh killed. Stall-fed beef has a lighter color than grass-fed.

Ox beef is the best, and next, that of a heifer.

In cold weather, it is economical to buy a hind quarter; have it cut up, and what is not wanted immediately, pack with snow in a barrel. All meats grow tender by keeping. Do not let meats freeze; if they do, thaw them in cold water, and do not cook them till fully thawed. A piece weighing ten pounds requires ten or twelve hours to thaw.

The calf should not be slaughtered until it is six weeks old. Spring is the best time for veal. It is divided as marked in the drawing.

1. The _head_, sold with the _pluck_, which includes the _heart_, _liver_, and _sweet-breads_. 2. The _rack_, including the neck; used for stews, pot-pies, and broths; also for chops and roasting. 3. The _shoulder_. This, and also half the rack and ribs of the fore-quarter, are sometimes roasted, and sometimes used for stews, broths, and cutlets. 4. The _fore-shank_, or _knuckle_; used for broths. 5. The _breast_; used for stews and soups; also to stuff and bake. 6. The _loin_; used for roasting. 7. The _fillet_, or _leg_, including the hind flank; used for cutlets, or to stuff and boil, or to stuff and roast, or bake. 8. The _hind shank_, or _hock_, or _knuckle_; used for soups. The _feet_ are used for jelly.

In selecting _Veal_, take that which is firm and dry, and the joints stiff, having the lean a delicate red, the kidney covered with fat, and the fat very white. If you buy the head, see that the eyes are plump and lively, and not dull and sunk in the head. If you buy the legs, get those which are not skinned, as the skin is good for jelly or soup.

In choosing _Mutton_, take that which is bright red and close-grained, with firm and white fat. The meat should feel tender and springy on pressure. Notice the vein on the neck of the fore-quarter, which should be a fine blue.

In selecting _Pork_, if young, the lean can easily be broken when pinched, and the skin can be indented by nipping with the fingers. The fat also will be white and soft. _Thin_ rind is best.

In selecting _Hams_, run a knife along the bone, and if it comes out clean, the ham is good; but if it comes out smeared, it is spoiled. Good bacon has white fat, and the lean adheres closely to the bone. If the bacon has yellow streaks, it is rusty, and not fit to use.

* * * * *

In selecting _Poultry_, choose those that are full grown, but not old. When young and fresh-killed, the skin is thin and tender, the joints not very stiff, and the eyes full and bright. The breast-bone shows the age, as it easily yields to pressure if young, and is tough when old. If young, you can with a pin easily tear the skin. A goose, when old, has red and hairy legs; but when young, they are yellow, and have few hairs. The pin-feathers are the roots of feathers, which break off and remain in the skin, and always indicate a _young_ bird. When very neatly dressed, they are pulled out.

Poultry and birds ought to be killed by having the head cut off, and then hung up by the legs to bleed freely. This makes the flesh white and more healthful.

* * * * *

In selecting _Fish_, take those that are firm and thick, having stiff fins and bright scales, the gills bright red, and the eyes full and prominent. When fish are long out of water, they grow soft, the fins bend easily, the scales are dim, the gills grow dark, and the eyes sink and shrink away. Be sure and have them dressed immediately; sprinkle them with salt, and use them, if possible, the same day. In warm weather, put them in ice, or corning, for the next day.

Shell-fish can be decided upon only by the smell. Lobsters are not good unless alive, or else boiled before offered for sale. They are black when alive, and red when boiled. When to be boiled, they are to be put alive into boiling water, which is the quickest and least cruel way to end their life.

THE CARE OF MEATS.

In hot weather, if there is no refrigerator, then wipe meat dry, sprinkle on a little salt and pepper, and hang in the cellar. Or, still better, wrap it, thus prepared, in a dry cloth, and cover it with charcoal or with wood-ashes. Mutton, wrapped in a cloth wet with vinegar, and laid on the ground of a _dry_ cellar, keeps well and improves in tenderness.

Hang meat a day or two after it is killed before corning it.

In winter, meat is kept finely if well packed in snow, without salting; but some say it lessens the sweetness.

Frozen meat must be thawed in cold water, and not cooked till entirely thawed.

Beef and mutton are improved by keeping as long as they remain sweet. If meat begins to taint, wash it, and rub it with powdered charcoal, which often removes the taint. Sometimes rubbing with salt will cure it. Soda water is good also.

Take all the kernels out that you will find in the round and thick end of the flank of beef, and in the fat, and fill the holes with salt. This will preserve it longer.

Salt your meat, in summer, as soon as you receive it.

A pound and a half of salt rubbed into twenty-five pounds of beef, will corn it so as to last several days in ordinary warm weather; or put it in strong brine.

In most books of recipes there are several different ones for corning, for curing pork hams, and for other uses, while an inexperienced person is at a loss to know which is best. The recipes here given are decided to be _the best_, after an examination of quite a variety, by the writer, who has resided where they were used; and she knows that the very best results are secured by these directions. These also are pronounced the best by business men of large experience.

=To Salt down Beef to keep the Year round.=—One hundred pounds of beef; four quarts of rock-salt, pounded fine; four ounces of saltpetre, pounded fine; four pounds of brown sugar. Mix well. Put a layer of meat on the bottom of the barrel, with a thin layer of this mixture under it. Pack the meat in layers, and between each put equal proportions of this mixture, allowing a little more to the top layers. Then pour in brine till the barrel is full.

=To cleanse Calf’s Head and Feet.=—Wash clean, and sprinkle pounded resin over the hair; dip in boiling water and take out immediately, and then scrape them clean; then soak them in water for four days, changing the water every day.

=To prepare Rennet.=—Take the stomach of a new-killed calf, and do not wash it, as it weakens the gastric juice. Hang it in a cool and dry place five days or so; then turn the inside out, and slip off the curds with the hand. Then fill it with salt, with a little saltpetre mixed in, and lay it in a stone pot, pouring on a tea-spoonful of vinegar, and sprinkling on a handful of salt. Cover it closely, and keep for use. After six weeks, take a piece four inches square and put it in a bottle with five gills of cold water and two gills of rose brandy; stop it close, and shake it when you use it. A table-spoonful is enough for a quart of milk.

=To Salt down Fish.=—Scale, cut off the heads, open down the back, and remove most of the spine, to have them keep better. Lay them in salt water two hours, to extract blood. Sprinkle with fine salt, and let them lie over night. Then mix one peck of coarse and fine salt, one ounce of saltpetre, (or half an ounce of saltpetre and half an ounce of saleratus,) and one pound of sugar. Then pack in a firkin. Begin with a layer of salt, then a layer of fish, skin downward. A peck of salt will answer for twenty-five shad, and other fish in proportion.

As in most country families, when meat is salted for the year’s use, pork is the meat most generally and most largely relied upon, considerable space is devoted to its proper preparation. Special attention is given to various modes of curing and preserving it.

=To try out Lard.=—Take what is called _the leaves_, and take off all the skin, cut it into pieces an inch square, put it into a clean pot over a slow fire, and try it till the scraps look a reddish-brown; take great care not to let it burn, which would spoil the whole. Then strain it through a strong cloth, into a stone pot, and set it away for use.

Take the fat to which the smaller intestines are attached, (not the large ones,) and the flabby pieces of pork not fit for salting, try these in the same way, and set the fat thus obtained where it will freeze, and by spring the strong taste will be gone, and then it can be used for frying. A tea-cup of water prevents burning while trying.

Corn-fed pork is best. Pork made by still-house slops is almost poisonous, and hogs that live on offal never furnish healthful food. If hogs are properly fed, the pork is not unhealthful.

Pork with kernels in it is measly, and is unwholesome.

A thick skin shows that the pork is old, and that it requires more time to boil. If bought pork is very salt, soak it some hours. Do not let pork freeze, if you intend to salt it.

The gentleman who uses the following recipe for curing pork hams, says it has these advantages over all others he has tried or heard of, namely, the hams thus cured are sweeter than by any other method; they are more solid and tender, and are cured in less than half the time. Moreover, they do not attract flies so much as other methods:

=Recipe for Molasses-cured Hams.=—Moisten every part of the ham with molasses, and then for every hundred pounds use one quart of fine salt, and four ounces of saltpetre, rubbing them in very thoroughly at every point. Put the hams thus prepared in a tight cask for four days. Then rub again with molasses and one quart of salt, and return the hams to the cask for four days. Repeat this the third and the fourth time, and then smoke the hams. This process takes only sixteen days, while other methods require five or six weeks.

The following is the best recipe for the ordinary mode of curing hams; and the brine or pickle thus prepared is equally good for corning and all other purposes for which brine is used. Some persons use saleratus instead of the saltpetre, and others use half and half of each, and say it is an improvement:

=Brine or Pickle for corning Hams, Beef, Pork, and Hung Beef.=—Four gallons of water; two pounds of rock-salt, and a little more of common salt; two ounces of saltpetre; one quart of molasses. Mix, but do not boil. Put the hams in a barrel and pour this over them, and keep them covered with it for six weeks. If more brine is needed, make it in the same proportions.

=Brine for Beef, Pork, Tongues, and Hung Beef.=—Four gallons of water; one and a half pounds of sugar; one ounce of saltpetre; one ounce of saleratus. Add salt; and if it is for use only a month or two, use six pounds of salt; if for all the year, use _nine_ pounds. In hot weather, rub the meat with salt before putting it in, and let it lie for three hours, to extract the blood. When tongues and hung beef are taken out, wash the pieces, and, when smoked, put them in paper bags, and hang in a dry place.

=Brine by Measure, easily made.=—One gallon of cold water; one quart of rock-salt; and two of blown salt; one heaping table-spoonful of saltpetre, (or half as much of saleratus, with half a table-spoonful of saltpetre;) six heaping table-spoonfuls of brown sugar. Mix, but not boil. Keep it as long as salt remains undissolved at bottom. When scum rises, add more salt, sugar, saltpetre, and soda.

=To Salt down Pork.=—Allow a peck of salt for sixty pounds. Cover the bottom of the barrel with salt an inch deep. Put down one layer of pork, and cover that with salt half an inch thick. Continue thus till the barrel is full. Then pour in as much strong brine as the barrel will receive. Keep coarse salt between all pieces, so that the brine can circulate. When a white scum or bloody-looking matter rises on the top, scald the brine and add more salt. Leave out bloody and lean pieces for sausages. Pack as tight as possible, the rind next the barrel; and let it be _always_ kept _under_ the brine. Some use a stone for this purpose. In salting down a new supply, take the old brine, boil it down and remove all the scum, and then use it to pour over the pork. The pork may be used in six weeks after salting.

=To prepare Cases for Sausages.=—Empty the cases, taking care not to tear them. Wash them thoroughly, and cut into lengths of two yards each. Then take a candle-rod, and fastening one end of a case to the top of it, turn the case inside outward. When all are turned, wash very thoroughly, and scrape them with a scraper made for the purpose, keeping them in warm water till ready to scrape. Throw them into salt and water to soak till used. It is a very difficult job to scrape them clean without tearing them. When finished, they look transparent and very thin.

=Sausage-Meat.=—Take one third fat and two thirds lean pork, and chop it; and then to every twelve pounds of meat add twelve large even spoonfuls of pounded salt, nine of sifted sage, and six of sifted black pepper. Some like a little summer-savory. Keep it in a cool and dry place.

=Another Recipe.=—To twenty-five pounds of chopped meat, which should be one third fat and two thirds lean, put twenty spoonfuls of sage, twenty-five of salt, ten of pepper, and four of summer-savory.

=Bologna Sausages.=—Take equal portions of veal, pork, and ham; chop them fine; season with sweet herbs _and_ pepper; put them in cases; boil them till tender, and then dry them.

=To smoke Hams.=—Make a small building of boards, nailing strips over the cracks to confine the smoke. Have within cross-sticks, on which to hang the hams. Have only one opening at top, at the end farthest from the fire. Set it up so high that a small stove can be set under or very near it, with the smoke-pipe entering the floor at the opposite end from the slide. These directions are for a wooden house, and it is better thus than to have a fire _within_ a brick house, because too much warmth lessens the flavor and tenderness of the hams. Change the position of the hams once or twice, that all may be treated alike. When this can not be done, use an inverted barrel or hogshead, with a hole for the smoke to escape, and resting on stones; and keep a small, smouldering fire. Cobs are best, as giving a better flavor; and brands or chips of walnut wood are next best. Keeping a small fire a longer time is better than quicker smoking, as too much heat gives the hams a strong taste, and they are less sweet.

The house and barrel are shown in Fig. 5, on preceding page.