Home Pork Making Part 3

Season well and cook thoroughly.

SPANISH SAUSAGE

is made by using one-third each leaf lard, lean and fat pork, first thoroughly boiling and chopping fine the meat. Add to this the leaf lard previously chopped moderately fine, mix well and add a little blood to improve the color and moisten the whole. This sausage is to be placed in large casings and tied in links eight to twelve inches long. In an old recipe for Spanish sausage seasoning it is made of seven pounds ground white pepper, six ounces ground nutmeg, eight ounces ground pimento or allspice and a sprinkling of bruised garlic.

ANOTHER SAUSAGE SEASONING.

To five pounds salt add two pounds best ground white pepper, three ounces ground mace, or an equal quant.i.ty of nutmeg, four ounces ground coriander seed, two ounces powdered cayenne pepper and mix thoroughly.

ADMIXTURE OF BREAD.

Very often concerns which manufacture sausage on a large scale add considerable quant.i.ties of bread. This increases the weight at low cost, thus cheapening the finished product, and is also said to aid in keeping qualities. While this is no doubt thoroughly wholesome, it is not in vogue by our most successful farmers who have long made a business of preparing home-cured sausage. Bread used for sausages should have the crust removed, should be well soaked in cold water for some time before required, then pressed to remove the surplus moisture, and added gradually to the pork while being chopped. Some sausage manufacturers add 10 to 15 per cent in weight of crushed crackers instead of bread to sausage made during hot weather. This is to render the product firm and incidentally to increase the weight through thoroughly mixing the cracker crumbs or powder with an equal weight or more of water before adding to the meat.

SAUSAGE IN CASES.

Many prefer to pack in sausage casings, either home prepared or purchased of a dealer in packers' supplies. Latest improved machines for rapidly filling the cases are admirably adapted to the work, and this can also be accomplished by a homemade device. Figure 15 shows a simple bench and lever arrangement to be used with the common sausage filler, which lightens the work so much that even a small boy can use it with ease, and any person can get up the whole apparatus at home with little or no expense. An inch thick pine board one foot wide and four and one-fourth feet long is fitted with four legs, two and one-half feet long, notched into its edges, with the feet spread outward to give firmness. Two oak standards eighteen inches high are set thirty-four inches apart, with a slot down the middle of each, for the admission of an oak lever eight feet long. The left upright has three or four holes, one above another, for the lever pin, as shown in the engraving. The tin filler is set into the bench nearer the left upright and projects below for receiving the skins.

Above the filler is a follower fitting closely into it, and its top working very loosely in the lever to allow full play as it moves up and down. The engraving shows the parts and mode of working.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15. HOMEMADE SAUSAGE FILLER.]

PHILADELPHIA Sc.r.a.pPLE.

This is highly prized in some parts of the country, affording a breakfast dish of great relish. A leading Philadelphia manufacturer has furnished us with the following recipe: To make 200 lbs. of sc.r.a.pple, take about 80 lbs. of good clean pork heads, remove the eyes, brains, snout, etc. Put in about 20 gals. of water and cook until it is thoroughly done. Then take out, separate the bones and chop the meat fine. Take about 15 gals, of the liquor left after boiling the heads, and if the water has boiled down to a quant.i.ty less than 15 gals., make up its bulk with hot water; if more than 15 gals. remain, take some of the water out, but be sure to keep some of the good fat liquor. Put this quant.i.ty of the liquor into a kettle, add the chopped meat, together with 10 oz. pure white pepper, 8 oz. sweet marjoram, 2 lbs. fine salt. Stir well until the liquor comes to a good boil. Have ready for use at this time 25 lbs. good Indian meal and 7 lbs.

buckwheat flour. As soon as the liquor begins to boil add the meal and flour, the two being previously mixed dry. Be careful to put the meal in a little at a time, scattering it well and stirring briskly, that it may not burn to the kettle. Cook until well done, then place in pans to cool. The pans should be well greased, also the dipper used, to prevent the sc.r.a.pple sticking to the utensils. When cold, the sc.r.a.pple is cut into slices and fried in the ordinary manner as sausage. Serve hot.

SOUSE.

After being carefully cleaned and soaked in cold water, the feet, ears, nose and sometimes portions of the head may be boiled, thoroughly boned, and pressed into bowls or other vessels for cake souse. But frequently these pieces, instead of being boned, are placed whole in a vessel and covered with a vinegar, and afterwards taken a little at a time, as wanted, and fried.

JOWLS AND HEAD.

If not made into souse or sausage, these may be boiled unsmoked, with turnips, peas or beans; or smoked and cooked with cabbage or salad. The liver and accompanying parts, if not converted into sausage, may be otherwise utilized.

THE SPARERIBS AND SHORT BONES

may be cooked in meat pies with a crust, the same as chicken, or they may be fried or boiled. The large end of the chine makes a good piece for baking. The whole chine may be smoked and will keep a long time.

CRACKNELS.

This is the portion of the fat meat which is left after the lard is cooked, and is used by many as an appetizing food. The cracknels may be pressed and thus much more lard secured. This latter, however, should be used before the best lard put away in tubs. After being pressed the cracknels are worked into a dough with corn meal and together made into cracknel bread.

BRAWN

is comparatively little used in this country, though formerly a highly relished dish in Europe, where it was often prepared from the flesh of the wild boar. An ancient recipe is as follows: "The bones being taken out of the flitches (sides) or other parts, the flesh is sprinkled with salt and laid on a tray, that the blood may drain off, after which it is salted a little and rolled up as hard as possible. The length of the collar of brawn should be as much as one side of the boar will permit; so that when rolled up the piece may be nine or ten inches in diameter. After being thus rolled up, it is boiled in a copper or large kettle, till it is so tender that you may run a stiff straw through it. Then it is set aside till it is thoroughly cold, put into a pickle composed of water, salt, and wheat-bran, in the proportion of two handfuls of each of the latter to every gallon of water, which, after being well boiled together, is strained off as clear as possible from the bran, and, when quite cold, the brawn is put into it."

HEAD CHEESE.

This article is made usually of pork, or rather from the meat off the pig's head, skins, and coa.r.s.e tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs. After having been well boiled, the meat is cut into pieces, seasoned well with sage, salt, and pepper, and pressed a little, so as to drive out the extra fat and water. Some add the meat from a beef head to make it lean. Others add portions of heart and liver, heating all in a big pan or other vessel, and then running through a sausage mill while hot.

BLOOD PUDDINGS

are usually made from the hog's blood with chopped pork, and seasoned, then put in casings and cooked. Some make them of beef's blood, adding a little milk; but the former is the better, as it is thought to be the richer.

SPICED PUDDINGS.

These are made somewhat like head-cheese, and often prepared by the German dealers, some of whom make large quant.i.ties. They are also made of the meat from the pig's chops or cheeks, etc., well spiced and boiled. Some smoke them.

CHAPTER VII.

THE FINE POINTS IN MAKING LARD.

Pure lard should contain less than one per cent of water and foreign matter. It is the fat of swine, separated from the animal tissue by the process of rendering. The choicest lard is made from the whole "leaf."

Lard is also made by the big packers from the residue after rendering the leaf and expressing a "neutral" lard, which is used in the manufacture of oleomargarine. A good quality of lard is made from back-fat and leaf rendered together. Fat from the head and intestines goes to make the cheaper grades. Lard may be either "kettle" or "steam rendered," the kettle process being usually employed for the choicer fat parts of the animal, while head and intestinal fat furnish the so-called "steam lard."

Steam lard, however, is sometimes made from the leaf. On the other hand, other parts than the leaf are often kettle rendered. Kettle rendered lard usually has a fragrant cooked odor and a slight color, while steam lard often has a strong animal odor.

TO REFINE LARD,

a large iron pot is set over a slow fire of coals, a small quant.i.ty of water is put into the bottom of the pot, and this is then filled to the brim with the fat, after it has first been cut into small pieces and nicely washed, to free it from blood and other impurities. If necessary to keep out soot, ashes, etc., loose covers or lids are placed over the vessels, and the contents are made to simmer slowly for several hours.

This work requires a careful and experienced hand to superintend it.

Everything should be thoroughly clean, and the attendant must possess patience and a practical knowledge of the work. It will not do to hurry the cooking. A slow boil or simmer is the proper way. The contents are occasionally stirred as the cooking proceeds, to prevent burning. The cooking is continued until the liquid ceases to bubble and becomes clear.

So long as there is any milky or cloudy appearance about the fat, it contains water, and in this condition will not keep well in summer--a matter of importance to the country housekeeper.

It requires six to eight hours constant cooking to properly refine a kettle or pot of fat. The time will depend, of course, somewhat upon the size of the vessel containing it and the thickness of the fat, and also upon the attention bestowed upon it by the cook. By close watching, so as to keep the fire just right all the time, it will cook in a shorter period, and vice versa. When the liquid appears clear the pots are set aside for the lard to cool a little before putting it into the vessels in which it is to be kept. The cracknels are first dipped from the pots and put into colanders, to allow the lard to drip from them. Some press the cracknels, and thus get a good deal more lard. As the liquid fat is dipped from the pots it is carefully strained through fine colanders or wire sieves. This is done to rid it of any bits of cracknel, etc., that may remain in the lard. Some country people when cooking lard add a few sprigs of rosemary or thyme, to impart a pleasant flavor to it. A slight taste of these herbs is not objectionable. Nothing else whatever is put into the lard as it is cooked, and if thoroughly done, nothing else is needed. A little salt is sometimes added, to make it firmer and keep it better in summer, but the benefit, if any, is slight, and too much salt is objectionable.

LEAF LARD.

In making lard, all the leaf or flake fat, the two leaves of almost solid fat that grow just above the hams on either side about the kidneys, and the choice pieces of fat meat cut off in tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the pork should be tried or rendered first and separate from the remainder. This fat is the best and makes what is called the leaf lard. It may be put in the bottom of the cans, for use in summer, or else into separate jars or cans, and set away in a cool place. The entrail fat and bits of fat meat are cooked last and put on top of the other, or into separate vessels, to be used during cool weather. This lard is never as good as the other, and will not keep sweet as long; hence the pains taken by careful housewives to keep the two sorts apart. It must be admitted, however, that many persons, when refining lard for market, do not make any distinction, but lump all together, both in cooking and afterward. But for pure, honest "leaf" lard not a bit of entrail fat should be mixed with the flakes.

A PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT POINT