The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 21

The time meat requires salting depends upon the weight of it, and how much salt is used: and if it be rubbed in with a heavy hand, it will be ready much sooner than if only lightly rubbed.

N. B. Dry the salt, and rub it with the sugar in a mortar.

PORK requires a longer time to cure (in proportion to its weight) than beef. A leg of pork should be in salt eight or ten days; turn it and rub it every day.

Salt meat should be well washed before it is boiled, especially if it has been in salt long, that the liquor in which the meat is boiled, may not be too salt to make soup of. (No. 218, &c. and No. 555.)

If it has been in salt a long time, and you fear that it will be too salt, wash it well in cold water, and soak it in lukewarm water for a couple of hours. If it is _very salt_, lay it in water the night before you intend to dress it.

_A Round of salted Beef._--(No. 7.)

As this is too large for a moderate family, we shall write directions for the dressing half a round. Get the tongue side.

Skewer it up tight and round, and tie a fillet of broad tape round it, to keep the skewers in their places.

Put it into plenty of cold water, and carefully catch the sc.u.m as soon as it rises: let it boil till all the sc.u.m is removed, and then put the boiler on one side of the fire, to keep _simmering_ slowly till it is done.

Half a round of 15lbs. will take about three hours: if it weighs more, give it more time.

When you take it up, if any stray sc.u.m, &c. sticks to it that has escaped the vigilance of your skimmer, wash it off with a paste-brush: garnish the dishes with carrots and turnips. Send up carrots (No. 129), turnips (No. 130), and parsnips, or greens (No. 118), &c. on separate dishes. Pease pudding (No. 555), and MY PUDDING (No. 551), are all very proper accompaniments.

N.B. The outside slices, which are generally too much salted and too much boiled, will make a very good relish as potted beef (No. 503). For using up the remains of a joint of boiled beef, see also Bubble and Squeak (No. 505).

_H-Bone of Beef_,--(No. 8.)

Is to be managed in exactly the same manner as the round, but will be sooner boiled, as it is not so solid. An H-bone of 20lbs. will be done enough in about four hours; of 10lbs. in three hours, more or less, as the weather is hotter or colder. Be sure the boiler is big enough to allow it plenty of water-room: let it be well covered with water: set the pot on one side of the fire to boil gently: if it boils quick at first, no art can make it tender after. The slower it boils, the better it will look, and the tenderer it will be. The same accompanying vegetables as in the preceding receipt. Dress plenty of carrots, as cold carrots are a general favourite with cold beef.

_Mem._--Epicures say, that the _soft_, fat-like marrow, which lies on the back, is delicious when hot, and the _hard_ fat about the upper corner is best when cold.

To make PERFECTLY GOOD PEASE SOUP in _ten minutes_, of the liquor in which the beef has been boiled, see N.B. to No. 218.

_Obs._--In "Mrs. Mason's Ladies' a.s.sistant," this joint is called haunch-bone; in "Henderson's Cookery," edge-bone; in "Domestic Management," aitch-bone; in "Reynold's Cookery," ische-bone; in "Mrs.

Lydia Fisher's Prudent Housewife," ach-bone; in "Mrs. M'Iver's Cookery,"

hook-bone. We have also seen it spelled each-bone and ridge-bone; and we have also heard it called natch-bone.

N.B. Read the note under No. 7; and to make perfectly good pease soup of the pot-liquor, in ten minutes, see _Obs._ to No. 218, No. 229, and No.

555.

_Ribs of Beef salted and rolled._--(No. 9.)

Briskets, and the various other pieces, are dressed in the same way.

"Wow-wow" sauce (No. 328,) is an agreeable companion.

_Half a Calf's Head._--(No. 10.)

Cut it in two, and take out the brains: wash the head well in several waters, and soak it in warm water for a quarter of an hour before you dress it. Put the head into a saucepan, with plenty of cold water: when it is coming to a boil, and the sc.u.m rises, carefully remove it.

Half a calf's head (without the skin) will take from an hour and a half to two hours and a quarter, according to its size; with the skin on, about an hour longer. It must be _stewed very gently_ till it is tender: it is then extremely nutritive, and easy of digestion.

Put eight or ten sage leaves (some cooks use parsley instead, or equal parts of each) into a small sauce-pan: boil them tender (about half an hour); then chop them very fine, and set them ready on a plate.

Wash the brains well in two waters; put them into a large basin of cold water, with a little salt in it, and let them soak for an hour; then pour away the cold, and cover them with hot water; and when you have cleaned and skinned them, put them into a stew-pan with plenty of cold water: when it boils, take the sc.u.m off very carefully, and boil gently for 10 or 15 minutes: now chop them (not very fine); put them into a sauce-pan with the sage leaves and a couple of table-spoonfuls of thin melted b.u.t.ter, and a little salt (to this some cooks add a little lemon-juice), and stir them well together; and as soon as they are well warmed (take care they don't burn), skin the tongue,[115-*] trim off the roots, and put it in the middle of a dish, and the brains round it: or, chop the brains with an eschalot, a little parsley, and four hard-boiled eggs, and put them into a quarter of a pint of bechamel, or white sauce (No. 2 of 364). A calf's cheek is usually attended by a pig's cheek, a knuckle of ham or bacon (No. 13, or No. 526), or pickled pork (No. 11), and greens, broccoli, cauliflowers, or pease; and always by parsley and b.u.t.ter (see No. 261, No. 311, or No. 343).

If you like it full dressed, score it superficially, beat up the yelk of an egg, and rub it over the head with a feather; powder it with a seasoning of finely minced (or dried and powdered) winter savoury or lemon-thyme (or sage), parsley, pepper, and salt, and bread crumbs, and give it a brown with a salamander, or in a tin Dutch oven: when it begins to dry, sprinkle a little melted b.u.t.ter over it with a paste-brush.

You may garnish the dish with broiled rashers of bacon (No. 526 or 527).

_Obs._--Calf's head is one of the most delicate and favourite dishes in the list of boiled meats; but nothing is more insipid when cold, and nothing makes so nice a hash; therefore don't forget to save a quart of the liquor it was boiled in to make sauce, &c. for the hash (see also No. 520). Cut the head and tongue into slices, trim them neatly, and leave out the gristles and fat; and slice some of the bacon that was dressed to eat with the head, and warm them in the hash.

Take the bones and the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of the head, a bundle of sweet herbs, an onion, a roll of lemon-peel, and a blade of bruised mace: put these into a sauce-pan with the quart of liquor you have saved, and let it boil gently for an hour; pour it through a sieve into a basin, wash out your stew-pan, add a table-spoonful of flour to the brains and parsley and b.u.t.ter you have left, and pour it into the gravy you have made with the bones and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs; let it boil up for ten minutes, and then strain it through a hair-sieve; season it with a table-spoonful of white wine, or of catchup (No. 439), or sauce superlative (No. 429): give it a boil up, skim it, and then put in the brains and the slices of head and bacon; as soon as they are thoroughly warm (it must not boil) the hash is ready. Some cooks egg, bread-crumb, and fry the finest pieces of the head, and lay them round the hash.

N.B. You may garnish the edges of the dish with slices of bacon toasted in a Dutch oven (see Nos. 526 and 527), slices of lemon and fried bread.

To make gravy for hashes, &c. see No. 360.

_Pickled Pork_,--(No. 11.)

Takes more time than any other meat. If you buy your pork ready salted, ask how many days it has been in salt; if many, it will require to be soaked in water for six hours before you dress it. When you cook it, wash and sc.r.a.pe it as clean as possible; when delicately dressed, it is a favourite dish with almost every body. Take care it does not boil fast; if it does, the knuckle will break to pieces, before the thick part of the meat is warm through; a leg of seven pounds takes three hours and a half very slow simmering. Skim your pot very carefully, and when you take the meat out of the boiler, sc.r.a.pe it clean.

Some sagacious cooks (who remember to how many more nature has given eyes than she has given tongues and brains), when pork is boiled, score it in diamonds, and take out every other square; and thus present a retainer to the eye to plead for them to the palate; but this is pleasing the eye at the expense of the palate. A leg of nice pork, nicely salted, and nicely boiled, is as nice a cold relish as cold ham; especially if, instead of cutting into the middle when hot, and so letting out its juices, you cut it at the knuckle: slices broiled, as No. 487, are a good luncheon, or supper. To make pease pudding, and pease soup extempore, see N.B. to Nos. 218 and 555.

MEM.--Some persons who sell pork ready salted have a silly trick of cutting the knuckle in two; we suppose that this is done to save their salt; but it lets all the gravy out of the leg; and unless you boil your pork merely for the sake of the pot-liquor, which in this case receives all the goodness and strength of the meat, friendly reader, your oracle cautions you to buy no leg of pork which is slit at the knuckle.

If pork is not done enough, nothing is more disagreeable; if too much, it not only loses its colour and flavour, but its substance becomes soft like a jelly.

It must never appear at table without a good pease pudding (see No.

555), and, if you please, parsnips (No. 128); they are an excellent vegetable, and deserve to be much more popular; or carrots (No. 129), turnips, and greens, or mashed potatoes, &c. (No. 106.)

_Obs._--Remember not to forget the mustard-pot (No. 369, No. 370, and No. 427).

_Pett.i.toes, or Sucking-Pig's Feet._--(No. 12.)

Put a thin slice of bacon at the bottom of a stew-pan with some broth, a blade of mace, a few pepper-corns, and a bit of thyme; boil the feet till they are quite tender; this will take full twenty minutes; but the heart, liver, and lights will be done enough in ten, when they are to be taken out, and minced fine.

Put them all together into a stew-pan with some gravy; thicken it with a little b.u.t.ter rolled in flour; season it with a little pepper and salt, and set it over a gentle fire to simmer for five minutes, frequently shaking them about.

While this is doing, have a thin slice of bread toasted very lightly; divide it into sippets, and lay them round the dish: pour the mince and sauce into the middle of it, and split the feet, and lay them round it.

N.B. Pett.i.toes are sometimes boiled and dipped in batter, and fried a light brown.

_Obs._--If you have no gravy, put into the water you stew the pett.i.toes in an onion, a sprig of lemon thyme, or sweet marjoram, with a blade of bruised mace, a few black peppers, and a large tea-spoonful of mushroom catchup (No. 439), and you will have a very tolerable subst.i.tute for gravy. A bit of No. 252 will be a very great improvement to it.