Chapter 14

Skin and prepare two chickens as for a fricassee; wash them very clean, and stew them in a pint and a half of water for about five minutes. Strain off the liquor, and put the chickens in a clean dish. Slice three large onions, and fry them in about two ounces of butter. Put in the chickens, and fry them together till they are brown. Take a quarter of an ounce of curry-powder, and salt to your palate, and strew over the chickens while they are frying; then pour in the liquor in which they were first stewed, and let them stew again for half an hour. Add a quarter of a pint of cream and the juice of two lemons. Have rice boiled dry to eat with it. Rabbits do as well as chickens.

_Curry._ No. 5.

Take two chickens, or in the same proportion of any other kind of flesh, fish, or fowl; cut the meat small; strew a little salt and pepper over it; add a small quantity of onion fried in butter; put one table-spoonful of curry-powder to your meat and onions; mix them well together with about three quarters of a pint of water. Put the whole in a stewpan covered close; let it stew half an hour before you open the pan; then add the juice of two lemons, or an equal quantity of any other souring. Let it stew again till the gravy appears very thick and adheres to the meat. If the meat floats in the gravy, the curry will not be considered as well made. Salt to your palate.

_Curry._ No. 6.

Mix together a quart of good gravy, two spoonfuls of curry-powder, two of soy, a gill of red wine, a little cayenne pepper, and the juice of a lemon. Cut a breast of veal in square pieces, and put it in a stewpan with a pint of gravy; stew slowly for a quarter of an hour; add the rest of the gravy with the ingredients, and stew till done.

_Curry._ No. 7.

Take a fowl, fish, or any meat you like; cut it in slices; cut up two good sized onions very fine; half fry your fowl, or meat, with the onions, in a quarter of a pound of butter. Add two table-spoonfuls of curry-powder, fry it a little longer, and stew it well; then add any acid you like, a little salt, and half a pint of water. Let all stew together until the meat is done.

_Farcie, to make._

Take the tender part of a fillet of veal, free from sinew, and mince it fine, with a piece of the fat of ham, some chopped thyme, basil, and marjoram, dried, and a little seasoning according to the palate. Put the whole in a stewpan, and keep stirring it till it is warm through; then put it on a sieve to drain. When the liquor has run from it, pound the farcie, while warm, in a mortar, adding the drained liquor, by degrees, till the whole is again absorbed in the meat, which must be pounded very fine. Put it in an earthen pot, and steam it for half an hour with a slice of fat ham; cover over the pot to prevent the steam from getting to it; when cold, pour on some good jelly made of the lean of ham and veal, and take care to pour it on cold (that is, when the jelly is just dissolved,) otherwise it will raise the farcie. When livers are to be had, put a third of them with the ham and veal, as above directed, and the farcie will be better.

_Forcemeat, to make._ No. 1.

Chop small a pound of veal, parsley, thyme, a small onion, and a pound of beef; grate the inside of three French rolls, and put all these together, with pepper, salt, soup, and nutmeg, seasoning it to your taste; add as many eggs as will make it of a proper stiffness, and roll them into balls.

_Forcemeat._ No. 2.

Take half a pound of the lean of a leg of veal, with the skin picked off, cut it into small pieces, and mince it very small; shred very fine a pound of beef-suet and grate a nutmeg into both; beat half as much mace into it with cloves, pepper, and salt, a little rosemary, thyme, sweet marjoram, and winter savory. Put all these to the meat in a mortar, and beat all together, till it is smooth and will work easily with your hands, like paste. Break two new laid eggs to some white bread crumbs, and make them into a paste with your hands, frying it in butter. If you choose, leave out the herbs.

_Forcemeat._ No. 3.

A pound of veal, full its weight in beef suet, and a bit of bacon, shred all together; beat it in a mortar very fine; season with sweet-herbs, pepper, and salt. When you roll it up to fry, add the yolks of two or three eggs to bind it; you may add oysters or marrow.

_Fricandeau._

Take a piece of veal next to the udder; separate the skin, and flatten the meat on a clean cloth; make slits in the bottom part, that it may soak up seasoning, and lard the top very thick and even. Take a stewpan that will receive the veal without confining it; put at the bottom three carrots cut in slices, two large onions sliced, a bunch of parsley, the roots cut small, a little mace, pepper, thyme, and a bay-leaf; then lay some slices of very fat bacon, so as entirely to cover the vegetables, and make a pile of bacon in the shape of a tea-cup. Lay the veal over this bacon; powder a little salt over it; then put sufficient broth, and some beef jelly, lowered with warm water, to cover the bottom of the stewpan without reaching the veal. Lay a quantity of fine charcoal hot on the cover of the pan, keeping a very little fire beneath; as soon as it begins to boil, remove the stewpan, and place it over a very slow and equal fire for three hours and a half, removing the fire from the top; baste it frequently with liquor. When it has stewed the proper time, try if it is done by putting in a skewer, which will then go, in and out easily. Put a great quantity of fire again on the top of the stewpan till the bacon of the larding becomes quite firm; next remove the veal, and keep it near the fire; reduce the liquor to deep rich gravy to glaze it, which pour over the top only where it is larded; and, when it is served, put the fricandeau in a dish, and the puré of spinach, which is to be ready according to the receipt given in the proper place, (See Spinach to stew,) to lay round the dish.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 1.

Take a ham of young pork; sprinkle it with salt, and let it lie twenty-four hours. Having wiped it very dry, rub it well with a pound of coarse brown sugar, a pound of juniper berries, a quarter of a pound of saltpetre, half a pint of bay salt, and three pints of common salt, mixed together, and dried in an iron pot over the fire, stirring them the whole time. After this, take it off the fire, when boiled, and let it lie in an earthen glazed pan three weeks, but it must be often turned in the time, and basted with the brine in which it lies. Then hang it up till it has done dripping; and dry it in a chimney with deal saw-dust and juniper berries.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 2.

For two hams, take half a pound of bay salt, two ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of sal prunella, half a pound of brown sugar, half a pound of juniper berries, half a pound of common salt; beat them all, and boil them in two quarts of strong beer for half an hour very gently. Leave out one ounce of saltpetre to rub the hams over-night. Put them into the pickle, and let them lie a month or five weeks, basting them every day. Pickle in the winter, and dry in wood smoke; let them hang up the chimney a fortnight.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 3.

Hang up a ham two days; beat it well on the fleshy side with a rollingpin; rub in an ounce of saltpetre, finely powdered, and let it lie a day. Then mix together an ounce of sal prunella with two large handfuls of common salt, one handful of bay salt, and a pound of coarse sugar, and make them hot in a stewpan. While hot, rub it well in with two handfuls more of common salt; then let it lie till it melts to brine. Turn the meat twice every day for three weeks, and dry it like bacon.

_Ham, to cure--the Thorpe way._ No. 4.

The following are the proportions for two hams, or pigs' faces: Boil one pound of common salt, three ounces of bay salt, two ounces and a half of saltpetre, and one pound of the coarsest brown sugar, in a quart of strong old beer. When this pickle is cold, well rub the hams or faces with it every day for a fortnight. Smoke them with horse litter for two hours; then hang them to dry in a chimney where wood is burned for a fortnight, after which, hang them in a dry place till wanted for use. They are not so good if used under eight months or after a year old.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 5.

For one large ham take one pound of coarse sugar, one pound common salt, a quarter of a pound of saltpetre, and two ounces of bay salt, boiled in a quart of strong ale, or porter. When cold put it to your ham; and let it lie in the pickle three weeks, turning the ham every day.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 6.

Put two ounces of sal prunella, a pound of bay salt, four pounds of white salt, a pound of brown sugar, half a pound of saltpetre, to one gallon of water; boil it a quarter of an hour, keeping, it well skimmed, and, when cold, pour it from the sediment into the vessel in which you steep, and let the hams remain in the pickle about a month; the tongues a fortnight. In the same manner Dutch beef may be made by letting it lie in the pickle for a month, and eight or ten days for collared beef; dry them in a stove or chimney. Tongues may be cured in the same manner.

_Ham, to cure._ No 7.

Four gallons of spring water, two pounds of bay salt, half a pound of common salt, two pounds of treacle, to be boiled a quarter of an hour, skimmed well, and poured hot on the hams. Let them be turned in the pickle every day, and remain three weeks or a month; tongues may be cured in the same way.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 8.

One ounce of pepper, two of saltpetre, one pound of bay salt, one ounce of sal prunella, one pound of common salt. Rub these in well, and let the ham lie a week after rubbing; then rub over it one pound of treacle or coarse sugar. Let it lie three weeks longer; take it up, steep it twenty-four hours in cold water, and then hang it up.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 9.

One pound of common salt, half a pound of bay salt, four ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of black pepper; mix them together, and rub the ham very well for four days, until the whole is dissolved. Then take one pound and a half of treacle and rub on, and let it lie in the pickle one month; turning it once a day. When you dress it, let the water boil before you put it in.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 10.

Into four gallons of water put one pound and a half of the coarsest sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, and six pounds of common salt; boil it, carefully taking off the scum till it has done rising; then let it stand till cold. Having put the meat into the vessel in which you intend to keep it, pour on the liquor till it is quite covered. If you wish to keep the meat for a long time, it will be necessary once in two or three months to boil the pickle over again, clearing off the scum as it rises, and adding, when boiling, a quarter of a pound of sugar, half a pound of salt, and half an ounce of saltpetre; in this way the pickle will keep good for a year. When you take the meat out of the pickle, dry it well before it is smoked. Hams from fifteen to twenty pounds should lie in pickle twenty-four days; small hams and tongues, fifteen days; a small piece of beef about the same time. Hams and beef will not do in the same pickle together. After the hams are taken out, the pickle must be boiled again before the beef is put in.

The same process may be used for beef and tongues.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 11.

Mix one pound and a half of salt, one pound and a half of coarse sugar, and one ounce of saltpetre, in one quart of water; set it on the fire, and keep stirring the liquor till it boils. Skim it. When boiled about five minutes take it off, and pour it boiling hot on the leg of pork, which, if not quite covered, must be turned every day. Let it remain in the pickle one month; then hang it in the chimney for six weeks. These proportions will cure a ham of sixteen pounds. When the ham is taken out of the pickle, the liquor may be boiled up again and poured boiling hot upon pigs' faces. After that boil again, and pour it cold upon a piece of beef, which will be excellent. It will then serve cold for pigs' or sheep's tongues, which must be well washed and rubbed in a little of the liquor and left in the remainder.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 12.

Take a ham of fifteen pounds, and wash it well with a quarter of a pint of vinegar, mixed with a quarter of a pound of the coarsest sugar. Next morning rub it well with three quarters of a pound of bay salt rolled, on the lean part; baste it often every day for fourteen days, and hang it up to dry.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 13.

Three ounces of saltpetre, bay salt and brown sugar two ounces of each, a small quantity of cochineal; mix them all together, and warm them over the fire. Rub the hams well with it, and cover them over with common salt.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 14.

Take a quantity of spring water sufficient to cover the meat you design to cure; make the pickle with an equal quantity of bay salt and common salt; add to a pound of each one pound of coarse brown sugar, one ounce of saltpetre, and one ounce of petre-salt; let the pickle be strong enough to bear an egg. If you design to eat the pork in a month or six weeks, it is best not to boil the pickle; if you intend it for the year, the pickle must be boiled and skimmed well until it is perfectly clear; let it be quite cold before you use it. Rub the meat that is to be preserved with some common salt, and let it lie upon a table sloping, to drain out all the blood; wipe it very dry with a coarse cloth before you put it into the pickle. The proportion of the pickle may be this: four pounds of common salt, four pounds of bay salt, three pounds of coarse sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, and two ounces of petre-salt, with a sufficient quantity of spring water to cover what you do, boiled as directed above. Let the hams lie about six weeks in the pickle, and then send them to be smoked. Beef, pork, and tongues, may be cured in the same manner: ribs of beef done in this way are excellent.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 15.

Wash the ham clean; soak it in pump water for an hour; dry it well, and rub into it the following composition: saltpetre two ounces, bay salt nine ounces, common salt four ounces, lump sugar three ounces; but first beat them separately into a fine powder; mix them together, dry them before the fire, and then rub them into the ham, as hot as the hand can bear it. Then lay the ham sloping on a table; put on it a board with forty or fifty pounds weight; let it remain thus for five days; then turn it, and, if any of the salt is about it, rub it in, and let it remain with the board and weight on it for five days more; this done rub off the salt, &c. When you intend to smoke it, hang the ham in a sugar hogshead, over a chaffing-dish of wood embers; throw on it a handful of juniper-berries, and over that some horse-dung, and cover the cask with a blanket. This may be repeated two or three times the same day, and the ham may be taken out of the hogshead the next morning. The quantity of salt here specified is for a middle sized ham. There should not be a hole cut in the leg, as is customary, to hang it up by, nor should it be soaked in brine. Hams thus cured will keep for three months without smoking, so that the whole quantity for the year may be smoked at the same time. The ham need not be soaked in water before it is used, but only washed clean. Instead of a chaffing-dish of coals to smoke the hams, make a hole in the ground, and therein put the fire; it must not be fierce: be sure to keep the mouth of the hogshead covered with a blanket to retain the smoke.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 1.

Cut a leg of pork to the shape of a Westphalia ham; salt it, and set it on the fire in a skillet till dry, and put to it two ounces of saltpetre finely beaten. The salt must be put on as hot as possible. Let it remain a week in the salt, and then hang it up in the chimney for three weeks or a month. Two ounces of saltpetre will be sufficient for the quantity of salt required for one ham.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 2.

Let the hams be very well pricked with a skewer on the wrong side, hanging them in an airy place as long as they will keep sweet, and with a gallon of saltpetre make a pickle, and keep stirring it till it will bear an egg; boil and skim it and put three pounds of brown sugar to it. Let the hams lie about a month in this pickle, which must be cold when they are put in; turn them every day; dry them with saw-dust and charcoal. The above is the quantity that will do for six hams.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 3.

Rub every ham with four ounces of saltpetre. Next day put bay salt, common salt, and coarse sugar, half a pound of each, into a quart of stale strong beer, adding a small quantity of each of these ingredients for every ham to be made at that time. Boil this pickle, and pour it boiling hot over every ham. Let them lie a fortnight in it, rubbing them well and turning them twice a day. Then smoke the ham for three days and three nights over a fire of saw-dust and horse-litter, fresh made from the stable every night; after which smoke them for a fortnight over a wood fire like other bacon.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 4.

For two hams the following proportions may be observed: wash your hams all over with vinegar, and hang them up for two or three days. Take one pound and a half of the brownest sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of bay salt, and a quart of common salt; mix them together; heat them before the fire as hot as you can bear your hand in, and rub it well into the hams before the fire, till they are very tender. Lay them in a tub made long for that purpose, or a butcher's tray, that will hold them both, one laid one way and the other the contrary way, and strew the remainder of the ingredients over them. When the salt begins to melt, add a pint of vinegar, and let them lie three weeks, washing them with the liquor and turning them every day. Dry them in saw-dust smoke; hang them in a cellar; and if they mould it will do them no harm, as these hams require damp and not extreme driness. Juniper-berries thrown into the fire at which they are smoked greatly improve their flavour.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 5.

One pound of common salt, one pound of bay salt, four ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of black pepper; pound them separately, then mix them, and rub the ham very well until the whole is used. Rub one pound of treacle on them; lay them in the pickle one month, turning them every day. The quantity here specified will do for two hams. Before you hang them up, steep them in a pail of water for twelve hours.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 6.

Make a good brine of salt and water, sufficiently strong to bear an egg; boil and skim it clean, and when quite cold rub the meat with sal prunella and saltpetre mixed together. Put it in a vessel, and pour your brine into it; and, when the ham has been in the brine about fourteen days, take it out, drain it, and boil the brine, putting in a little salt, and letting it boil till clear. Skim it, and when cold put in your ham, rubbing it over with saltpetre, &c. as you did at first. Then let your ham again lie in the brine for three weeks longer; afterwards rub it well with bran, and have it dried by a wood fire.

_English Hams, to make like Westphalia._ No. 1.

Cut your legs of pork like hams; beat them well with a wooden mallet, till they are tender, but great care must be taken not to crack or break the skin, or the hams will be spoiled. To three hams take half a peck of salt, four ounces of saltpetre, and five pounds of coarse brown sugar; break all the lumps, and mix them well together. Rub your hams well with this mixture, and cover them with the rest. Let them lie three days; then hang them up one night, and put as much water to the salt and sugar as you think will cover them; the pickle must be strong enough to bear an egg: boil and strain it, and, when it is cold, pack your hams close, and cover them with the pickle at least an inch and half above their tops. Let them lie for a fortnight; then hang them up one night; the next day rub them well with bran, and hang them in the chimney of a fire-place in which turf, wood, or sawdust is burned. If they are small they will be dry enough in a fortnight; if large, in two or three days more. Then hang them up against a wall near a fire, and not in a damp place. Tongues may be cured in the same manner, and ribs of beef may be put in at the same time with the hams. You must let the beef lie in the pickle three weeks, and take it out when you want to boil it without drying it.

_English Hams, to make like Westphalia._ No. 2.

Cut off with the legs of young well grown porkers part of the flesh of the hind loin; lay them on either side in cloths, and press out the remaining blood and moisture, laying planks on them with heavy weights, which bring them into form; then salt them well with common salt and sugar finely beaten, and lay them in troughs one upon another, pressed closely down and covered with hyssop. Let them remain thus for a fortnight; then pass through the common salt, and with saltpetre rub them well over, which may be continued three or four days, till they soak. Take them out, and hang them in a close barn or smoke-loft; make a moderate fire under them, if possible of juniper-wood, and let them hang to sweat and dry well. Afterwards hang them up in a dry and airy place to the wind for three or four days, which will remove the ill scent left by the smoke; and wrap them up in sweet hay. To dress them, put them into a kettle of water when it boils; keep them well covered till they are done, and very few can distinguish them from the true Westphalia.

_English Hams, to make like Westphalia._ No. 3.

Take a ham of fifteen or eighteen pounds weight, two ounces of saltpetre, one pound of coarse sugar, one ounce of petre-salt, one ounce of bay salt, and one ounce of sal prunella, mixed with common salt enough to cover the ham completely. Turn your ham every other day, and let it remain in salt for three weeks. Take it out, rub a little bran over it, and dry it in a wood fire chimney, where a constant fire is kept: it will be fit for eating in a month. The quantity of the above ingredients must be varied according to the size of your ham. Before you dress it soak it over-night in water.

Hams from bacon pigs are better than pork. An onion shred small gives it a good flavour.

_Green Hams._

Salt a leg of pork as for boiling, with a little saltpetre to make it red. Let it lie three weeks in salt, and then hang for a month or six weeks; but if longer it is of no consequence. When boiled, stuff with young strawberry leaves and parsley, which must be particularly well washed or they will be gritty.

_Ham, to prepare for dressing without soaking._

Put the ham into a coarse sack well tied up, or sew it up in a cloth. Bury it three feet under ground in good mould; there let it remain for three or four days at least. This is an admirable way. The ham eats much mellower and finer than when soaked.

_Ham, to dress._

Boil the ham for two hours; take it out and trim it neatly all round; prepare in a stewpan some thin slices of veal, so as to cover the bottom; add to it two bunches of carrots sliced, six large onions, two cloves, two bunches of parsley, a tea-spoonful of cayenne pepper, a pint of beef jelly, a bottle of white wine, and three pints of boiling water. Place the ham in the stewpan, and let it boil an hour and three quarters; then serve it immediately without sauce, preserving the sauce for other use.

_Ham, to roast._