CUTTING AND CURING MEATS

Smoke-houxes.—Thiii is one of the nicest arrangements for smoking meat that a model farm can have, as it makes a safe re- ceptacle for ashes and also smokes meat when want ed; but a good and cheap smoke house quickly and easily made is t» dig a trench about three feet lonir. and one half foot wide, cover it with brick, and then dirt; at one end of the trench dig a hole about two feet deep, and large enough to set an old kettle or something to hold the fire, at the other end of the trench, place a barrel, (with top heads out), put a stick across the top, on which to hang the meat; cover the barrel with old carpet, or anything to hold the smoke in. Or take an old hogshead, stop up all the crevices, and tix a place to put a cross- stick near the bottom, to hang the articles to be smoked on. Next, in the side, cut a hole near the top, to introduce an iron pan filled with sawdust and small pieces of green wood. Having turned the tub upside down, hang the articles upon the cross- stieks, introduce the iron pan in the opening, and place a piece of red-hot iron in the pan, cover it with sawdust, and all will be complete. Let a large ham remain forty hours, and keep up a good smoke.

SaHsage><.— To make these easily and perfectly a meat chopper is almost indisi)ensable. It is also of great help in ^^^ ^.^..^^

making mince-meat. ""^ """

Beef Sausages. — Chop very fine three pounds very lean beef with a pound and a half suet. Season with powdered sage, allspice, pepper and salt and force the meat into skins that have been thoroughly cleansed, or make into cakes.

Bologna Sauxage. — Six pounds lean pork, three of beef, two of suet, four ounces salt, six tablespoons black pepper, two tablespoons cayenne pepper, two teaspoons cloves, one teaspoon allspice, and one minced onion ; or season to taste. Grind the meat ancl mix well with the seasoning; pack in beef skins, tie both ends tight, and lay in strong brine for a week, then change into a new brine for another week, turning them frequently. Take them out, wi[»e dry, and smoke them; rub the surface with butter, and hang in a cool dark place. Or take equal quantities of bacon (fat and lean), beef, veal, pork, and beef suet, grind together, season with pepper, salt, sweet herb's, sage rubbed fine, and spices if liked and sifted bread crumbs or boiler rice is sometimes added, though this is not done when the sausage is wanted to keep any length of time. Fill skins and prick them ; boil gently an hour, and lay on a straw or hang up to dry. Maybe smoked as above. An equal weiuht of ham, veal and pork, highly seasoned and boiled in casings till tender, then dried, makes very nice Bologna sausage also, and they are often made of beef and pork alone, using proportion of about one third pork to two-thirds beef, Season to taste and put up as above. A nice way of serving is to cut into slices not quite a quarter of an inch thick, skin them and lav them lapping over each other round a mound of parsley. This is of the nature of a salad and may be served with the cheese course or just after the soup and fish courses.

CUTTING AND CURING MEATS. 1047

Liver Sausage.— Boil pigs' livers, mince, and season with pepper, salt, cloves, chopped sweet marjoram and sage. Put in skins, prick them, and boil slowly an hour or so. Kee]) in covered jars, to eat cold in slices, or to fry in larger pieces. Boiled pigs' feet may be mixed with the livers.

Mixed Sausages.— Clean cai'efully two hogs' heads, two lights, two livers and cut off all the good parts of a dozen melts ; soak overnight in a tub of sah and water with a half dc^zen sweetbreads and same nund:)er of kidneys splil open. In the morning put all in a kettle to boil with two slices fat pork ; when done cool a little :ind grind in a sausage grinder, adding some of the fat skimmed from top of k(>ttle. While grinding, season with black pepper, salt and finely choi)iH^d onion to taste. If not rich enough add more fat pork ; if stufi'ed boil again for a few moments.

Pork Saumge. — A good rule is to allow one third fat meat to two thirds lean, a teaspoon each salt, pepper and sage to each pound meat, and a teas- poon each allspice or cloves, ginger and summer savory to every three pounds. Or season to taste, and when making a quantity it is well to test by frying a little, and add iDore seasoning if liked. When making for long keeping do not add either flour or bread crumbs, which are sometimes used to keep the fat from running out when cold. Put through a sausage grinder or chop fine. Press into thoroughly cleaned skins, or pack in jars, covering with lard or clarified drippings to depth of half an inch and tie paper over. For Buckeye Pork Sausage, to ten pounds meat take five tablespoons sage, four of salt and two of pepper. Some add one tablespoon ginger, and some a little summer savory. When nicely minced, pack in jars as above. If kept in a cuol i>lace, and care taken to replace the hird, there is no difficulty in keeping sausage perfectly fresh almost any length of time. 'Some per- sons ]>artially cook meat before packing, but this is not necessary. Fresh meat may be kept nicely in the same way, being firstseasoned with salt anrl jiepper. Or, one pound salt, one-half i)int of sage and three and one-half ounces pepper, scattered over forty pounds of meat before grinding. For Cold Siiri'd Saiisage, use small, well-baked, earthen j)ots ; take one handful of sausage after another, press firndy into the pot until it is nearly full. Tiieii place in an oven, hot enough to bake bread; bake a puarter of an hour for each pound of sausage; that is, if there are eight pounds, bake for two hour;- ; an<l when done, place a weight on it until it is cold ;

SuDimer Sausage. — In summer, when fresh pork cajniot be procured, A'ery good sausage-cakes may be made of raw beef, chopped fine with salt pork, seasoned with pepper and sage, and spices and herV)s if liked.

Triple Sausage. — Take equal parts pork (fat and lean.) veal and beef suet, grind or chop fine and to every three ])ounds meat and seasoning of grate<l rind of half a lemon, small nutmeg grated, six powdered sage leaves, one teaspoon ;'pepper, two of salt and half teaspoon each summer savory and marjoram witli a half pint bread crumbs. Pack for use as Pork Sausage.

Virginia Sausage. — Pick the sausage meat to get out all the pieces of bones and strings ; wash it in hike wacm water, and lay on a table to drain ; let it stand all night. Take off some of the fat from the backbone to mix Avith the lean. If you use "leaf fat" when you fry the sausage, it will melt away to gravy and leave a little knot of lean, hard and dr\', floating in a sea (jf melted grease. The fat must be taken ofi" before the chines are salted, and washed, skinned and put to drain with the lean. Next day, chojj it

1U48 CUTTING AND CURING MEATS.

fine, picking out all the strings. "When fine enough, season it with salt, sage, black and red pepper, to taste. Pack it in a close vessel. If you wish to stuff" them, have some nicely-cleaned chitterlings kept in salt and water ten days or a fortnight. Stuff, hang on sticks and dry. A little smoke im- proves them ; too much makes them bitter.

Mutton. — This is cut up as directed and corned and dried the same way that beef is.

Veal. — To cut the pii'ce.s up for use follow directions in illustration. For Calfs Head and Feet, the first thing to do is to remove the hair, unless pur- chased at the butchers when they will be nicely sorajx'd, and will only need to be wiped carefully with a danip towel so that no liair adheres. To remove the entire hair dru[i the head and feet into a tub of liot water that has had a shovelful of wood ashes boiled in it, or a few crumbs of eoneentrated lye, or washing soda. The water must not be (piite boiling hot, as that will set the hair and make cleaning ditlicult. Churn them about with a stick of wood a few minutes, then scrape with a sharp knife. Put the head into cold water and leave it there to draw out the blood for a moment, and dry well with a towel. Roast the hoofs in hot coals and pry (jtl" with a knife point, or some wash head and feet clean, sprinkle powdered resin over the hair, dip them .in boiling water and take out immediately, and then scrape them clean ; after- wards soak them in water four days, changing the water every day.

To prepare for use there are difterent ways ; some cut from between the ears to the nose touching the bones ; then cutting close to it, take otf tlesh, turn over the head, cut open the jaw-bone from underneath, and take out tongue whole. Turn the head Ijack again, crack the top of skull between the ears and take out the brains whole ; cut the head through the center, remove the skin from the nasal passage and cleanse thoroughly by scraping and scalding. Or remove the skin, cut open from throat to edge of lower jaw, without breaking more than necessary and put skin aside in cold water for soup. To remove the brain cut the skull with a meat saw from between the ears and above the eyes and the brain may be then taken out without breaking.

To Bone a Head ; place it on table with the front part of the head facing you ; draw the sharp point of a knife from the back part of the head right iown to the nose, making an incision down to the bone of the skull ; then with the knife clear the scalp and cheeks from the bones right and left, always keeping the point of the knife close to the bone. If you have not previously removed the brains, they are best removed before boning, chop the head in two and remove them as carefully as possible. When the head has been boned wash it well, wipe it with a clean cloth, season the inside with salt and pepper, roll it up with the tongue, tie it up, and parboil it in hot water for ten minutes ; then put it into cold water a few minutes, wipe it dry, and set it aside until wanted ; this is blanching it. In removing brains be very careful not to break them ; prepare them either by single or double blanching. To Single Blanch first soak in salted water one hour or simply wash in several waters, then remove every particle of the thin skin or membrane covering th*' soft inner substance very carefully without breaking; put over the fire in ijuart cold water with a seasoning of "salt and table-spoon vinegar and boil fifteen nunutes, lay in cold water till wanted which should not be very long. To Double i)7r(Hc/i, "cover them with cold water and let heat slowly until the fine outside skin can be removed easily, then put them in fresh water and let them heat again slowly, till all the blood comes out and they are entirely white. Take them out and put in boiling water with a little salt and table- spoon vinegar, boil them hard for ten minutes or till quite firm. Take them but and drop into

CUTTING AND CURING MEATS. 1049

Sweet-breads. — These are considered great delicacies and are the most ex- pensive parts of meat. Those of calves are best, but for hints as to purchasing see Marketing. Blanching Svjeet-breads is always necessary before cooking, and as they will not keep long this should be done as soon as brought from market. Some put them for half an hour in luke-warm water, then throw into boiling water to blanch and harden, and then into cold or ice water to cool ; after which draw oflf the outer casing, trim off all particles of fat, veins, membranes, etc., and cook as liked. Others put to soak in cold water for about an hour, adding tablespoon salt to each quart water. Then draw a lardoon of pork through the center of each, put into salted boiling water and cook until thoroughly done. Throw again into cold water for a few minutes and they will be firm and white. Carefully remove the skin and little pipes and set away in cool place until ready to cook. »^ome merely skin, then place in cold water ten minutes or so, when they are ready to boil. Sweet- breads should always be parboiled twenty minutes before cooking in any manner. Any flavor liked may be given sweet-breads by adding spices, herbs, or vegetables to the water in which they are parboiled. A good rule for two quarts water is, two tablespoons vinegar, one of salt, a bay leaf, dozen whole cloves, teaspoon pepper corns, small red pepper, sprig of any dry herb, except sage, (thyme marjoram or summer savory) sprigs of parsley, or small root of parsley. Set away in cool, place nutil dry wanted.

Poultry. — Are served either whole or cut up. Do not feed poultry for twenty-four hours before killing ; and some give them a tablespoon of vinegar an hour before killing ; catch them without frightningor bruising, tie the feet together, hang up on a horizontal pole, tie the wings together over the back with a strip of soft cotton cloth : let them hang five minutes, then cut the throat or cut off the head with a very sharp knife, and allow them to hang until the blood has ceased to drip. The thorough bleeding renders the meat more white and wholesome. Scald well by dipping in and out of a pail or tub of boiling water, being careful not to scald so much as to set the feathers and make them more difficult to pluck ; place the fowl on a board with head towards you, pull the feathers away from you which will be in the direction they naturally lie (if pulled in a contrary direction the skin is likely to be torn), be careful to remove all the pin-feathers with a knife or pair of tweezers ; singe, but not smoke, over blazing paper on the stove, or some prefer alcohol.

To Cut up a Chicken. — Lay the chicken on a board kept for the purpose, cut off the feet at first joint ; cut a slit in the neck, take out the windpipe and crop, cut off the wings and legs at the joint which unites them to the body, separate the first joint of the leg from the second, cut off the oil bag, make a slit horizontally under the tail, cut the end of the entrails loose, extend the slit on each side of the joint where the legs were cut off; then, with the left hand, hold the breast of the chicken, and with the right, bend back the rump until the joint in the back separates, cut it clear and place in water. Take out the entails, using a sharp knife to separate the eggs (if any), and all other particles to be removed, from the back, being careful in removing the heart and liver not to break the gall-bag (a small sack of blue-green color about an inch long attached to the liver) ; separate the back and breast ; commence at the high point of the breast and cut downwards towards the head, taking off part of the bjeast with the wish-bone ; cut the neck from that part of the back to which the ribs are attached, turn the skin off the neck, and take out all lumps and stringy substances ; very carefully remove the gall-bag from the liver, and clean the gizzard by making an incision through the thick part and first lining, peeling off the fleshy part, leaving the inside whole and ball- shaped; if the lining breaks, open the gizzard, pour out contents, peel off inner lining, and wash thoroughly. After washing in second water, the chick- en is ready to be cooked. Some prefer to cut the chicken with asharp knife,