and with less trouble.
For every gallon of cold water, use a quart of rock salt, a tablespoon heaping full of saltpetre, six heaping tablespoonfuls of brown sugar, and two quarts of blown salt. No boiling is needed; keep it as long as there is salt undissolved at the bottom. When scum rises scald it, and add more sugar, salt, and saltpetre. Keep weights on the meat to keep it under.
In very hot weather fresh meat will often spoil if it is put in cold pickle. At such times put the meat into hot pickle and boil it for twenty minutes, and the meat will keep a month or more. If you save the pickle, add a little more salt to it.
To salt down Beef to keep the year round.
To one hundred pounds of beef, take four quarts of rock salt pounded very fine, four ounces of saltpetre made very fine, four pounds of brown sugar, all well mixed.
Scatter some over the bottom of the barrel, lay down one layer, and over that scatter the proportion of salt belonging to such a portion of the meat, allowing rather the most to the top layers. Pack all down very close, and if any scum should rise, sprinkle a pint or more of salt over the top.
To Cleanse Calf’s Head and Feet.
Wash clean, and sprinkle pounded rosin over the hair, dip in boiling water and take out immediately, and then scrape them clean. Then soak them in water 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 teaspoonful 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 tablespoonful is enough for a quart of milk.
CHAPTER III.
BOILED MEATS.
In boiling meats it is important to keep the water constantly boiling, otherwise the meat will soak up the water.
If it is necessary to add more water, be careful that it be boiling water.
Be careful to remove the scum, especially when it first begins to boil, and a little salt thrown in aids in raising the scum.
Put the meat into cold water, let it heat very gradually forty minutes or so, and reckon the time of boiling from the time it commences boiling. Allow about twenty minutes for boiling for each pound of fresh meat, and twenty-four for salt meats.
Do not let the meat remain long, after it is done, as it injures it. Put a plate in the bottom to prevent the part that touches from cooking too much.
Be sure not to let the fire get hot, so as to make a hard boiling, especially at first. The more gently meat boils the more tender it is, and the more perfectly the savory portion is developed and retained. If the meat is fat, skim it and save the fat for other purposes.
Put salt into the water about in the proportion of a great spoonful to a gallon.
To cook a Ham (very fine).
Boil a common-sized ham four or five hours, then skin the whole and fit it for the table; then set it in an oven for half an hour, then cover it thickly with pounded rusk or bread crumbs, and set it back for half an hour.
Boiled ham is always improved by setting it into an oven for near an hour, till much of the fat fries out, and this also makes it more tender. Save the fat for frying meat.
Smoked Boiled Tongues.
Soak them in cold water all night, then wash them and boil for four or five hours, according to the size. When cooked, take off the skin and garnish with parsley.
À la Mode Beef.
Take a round of beef, cut it full of holes entirely through it, roll strips of raw salt pork in a seasoning made of thyme, cloves, and pepper and salt, half a teaspoonful of each; then draw these strips through the holes in the beef.
Put some small onions, say half a dozen, with a quarter of a pound of butter into a sauce-pan with two great spoonfuls of milk and stew them till soft, put your beef and these onions in a pot, (you can stew the onions in the pot instead of the sauce-pan if you prefer it,) pour on hot water just enough to cover it, and let it cook slowly four or five hours. Just before taking it up, add a pint of wine, either Port or Claret. The onions can be cooked separately if preferred.
Another à la Mode Beef.
If you have about five pounds of beef, take one pound of bread, soak it in water, pour off the water and mash it fine, adding a bit of butter the size of half a hen’s egg, salt, mace, pepper, cloves, half a teaspoonful each, pounded fine.
Mix all with a tablespoonful of flour and two eggs.
Then cut holes through the beef and put in half of this seasoning, and put it in a bake-pan with boiling water enough to cover it.
Put the pan lid, heated, over it, and a few coals on it, and let it stew two hours, then take it up and spread the other half of the dressing on the top, and add butter the size of a hen’s egg, heat the pan lid again hot enough to brown the dressing, and let it stew again an hour and a half.
When taken up, if the gravy is not thick enough, add a teaspoonful of flour wet up in cold water, then add a couple of glasses of white wine to the gravy, and a bit of butter as large as a walnut.
To Boil a Leg of Veal or Mutton.
Make a stuffing of bread, and a quarter as much of salt pork, chopped fine and seasoned with sweet herbs, pepper and salt. Make deep gashes, or what is better, take out the bone with a carving knife, and fill up with stuffing, and sew up the opening with strong thread. When there is a flap of flesh, lap it over the opening and sew it down.
Put it into a large pot and fill it with water, putting in a tablespoonful of salt, and let it simmer slowly three hours. If it is needful to add water, pour in boiling water. When it is done take it up, and save the broth for next day’s dinner.
Pot Pie, of Beef, Veal, or Chicken.
The best way to make the crust is as follows. Peel, boil, and mash a dozen potatoes, add a teaspoonful of salt, two great spoonfuls of butter, and half a cup of milk, or cream. Then stiffen it with flour, till you can roll it. Be sure to get all the lumps out of the potatoes. Some persons leave out the butter.
Some roll butter into the
