PORK
Pork is flesh and fat of pig or hog. It contains the largest percentage of fat of any meat. When eaten fresh it is the most difficult of digestion. By curing, salting and smoking, pork is rendered more wholesome. Bacon, next to butter and cream, is the most easily assimilated of all fatty foods. Pork should always be well cooked.
PORK CHOPS
Wipe chops; sprinkle with salt and pepper; place in hot frying pan; cook slowly until tender and well browned on each side.
PORK CHOPS AND STEAKS
Chops are cut from loin and ribs; cuts from leg and shoulder being known as steaks. Either piece is best cooked by laying them in hot frying pan, cook slowly until well seared on each side; then drain off all fat and set into a hot oven for 5 or 10 min, according to thickness of piece; season with pepper and salt just before laying in pan and serve with fried apples or a pickle gravy.
Pork steaks, chops and even roasting pieces may be cooked ready to serve then covered with lard and kept in a cool place. They will keep perfectly for weeks, and when wanted the lard can be melted, the meat reheated, and any sauce desired served with them.
ROAST PORK
The chine, loin and spareribs are the best pieces for roasting. Trim and wipe meat; rub well with salt, pepper and sage; place in hot roasting pan; dredge with flour; roast in hot oven until surfaces are brown; baste, reduce heat and roast from 3 to 3½ hr, basting every 20 min.
CHOPS WITH APPLES
Arrange pork chops on platter, surround with slices of apples, cut ½″ thick; fried in fat remaining in pan after frying chops.
CHOPS EN CASSEROLE
7 medium-sized potatoes, 2 tbp flour, 1 tsp salt, ⅛ tsp pepper, 3 tbp fat, 3 c milk, 6 pork chops.
Wash and pare potatoes; cut in thin slices; put a layer in greased baking dish and sprinkle with flour, salt and pepper; dot with small bits of fat; add another layer of potatoes and seasoning and repeat until all ingredients are used; pour milk over it; lay pork chops on top; bake in moderate oven 1½ hr or until potatoes are tender.
BAKED PORK CHOPS
Dip each chop in milk with a pinch of salt added to it; roll in bread crumbs evaporated; place in well-greased shallow pan; put a tsp of fat on top of each and bake in hot oven 20 min.
ROAST LEG OF PORK
Trim and wipe meat, if used with skin on; score it in 1-in squares, taking care to cut only through skin; make a cut just below knuckle with boning knife, slide knife up along bone and turn it outward, making a half dozen cuts ⅔ way to the skin and fill them with stuffing; sprinkle with salt and pepper; place on rack in roasting pan; dredge with flour. For roasting, follow directions for Roast Pork: Half hour before serving sprinkle with 1 tbp cracker crumbs seasoned with pepper, salt and sage; serve with apple sauce.
STUFFING
1 c grated bread crumbs, 1 sour apple, 1 small onion, 6 sage leaves, 2 tbp butter, 1 tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, 2 egg yolks.
Chop apple and onion; melt butter; add crumbs, rubbing them hard to distribute butter evenly; add seasoning, apple and onion and 2 beaten egg yolks.
ROAST LOIN RIBS
The meat is usually cut quite close from these and used for steaks. Follow directions for Roast Pork and allow 30 min for each pound; serve with apples roasted in same pan or fried; save all drippings from baking pan and see that the glaze is all dissolved; if the oven has not been too hot this fat will serve for frying and gravy can be made to serve with cold roast pork.
BROILED PORK TENDERLOIN
Trim and wipe meat, split open and broil; season with pepper, salt and 1 sage leaf for each one; place in hot broiler and brown thoroughly; serve on hot platter with melted butter.
SCRAPPLE
Scrapple is usually made from head and sometimes liver and heart of the hog.
10 lb whole hog heads, 2½ lb hog livers and hearts, a small quantity of beef if desired, 6 lb cornmeal, yellow or mixed, ½ lb salt, ½ lb buckwheat or rye flour, 3 oz spices, including pepper, sage, marjoram and thyme in any desired proportions.
Clean heads thoroughly, removing eyes and ear tubes; split head lengthwise and remove teeth and soft bones in and near nasal cavities; place heads and other meat in large kettle with a liberal quantity of water and cook until meat falls off bones; separate liquid and soft tissue from bones and pass through a fc; strain liquid in which meat was cooked to remove small pieces of bone, return to kettle and heat to boiling point; then slowly add the meal and flour, stirring constantly; boil and stir until the mass becomes thick; add the salt, spices and chopped meat, and boil 10 min longer. Pour while still hot into deep meat molds; bread pans will do; pour 2 to 4 tbp of melted lard over the materials in pans.
The scrapple is ready for use as soon as it has cooled. To prepare it for the table it is usually cut into slices about ½″ thick, dusted with flour, cracker dust or dry cornmeal, fried until the outside is crisp, and served hot; fried apples are good with fried scrapple.
LIVER AND BACON
Prepare the bacon as directed for breakfast bacon; cut the liver in slices ⅓″ thick, cover with boiling water and let stand 5 min; dry well and roll in seasoned flour; lay the slices in smoking hot bacon fat; when they are browned on each side they will be sufficiently cooked; serve on hot platter; garnish with slices of bacon.
ROAST FRESH HAM
Remove bone from a fresh ham or fresh pork shoulder; wipe meat, sprinkle with salt and stuff; sew in shape and score fat; place on rack in pan; dredge meat and bottom of pan with flour, and roast in a hot oven 3 hr, basting every 15 min with fat in pan; remove skin and brush outside of ham with 1 egg yolk diluted with 2 tbp cold water; sprinkle with ¼ c fine bread crumbs mixed with ¼ c brown sugar and bake until well browned.
FRIED HAM AND EGGS
Wipe ham, remove ½ outside layer of fat, and place in frying pan; cover with tepid water and let stand on back of range 30 min; drain and dry on a towel; heat pan, put in ham; brown quickly on one side, turn and brown other side; or soak ham over night; dry and cook in hot frying pan. If cooked too long, ham will become hard and dry; serve with fried eggs cooked in the tried-out ham fat.
HAM WITH JELLY SAUCE
½ tbp butter, ⅓ c currant jelly, 1 c cold cooked ham cut in small strips, few grains cayenne, ¼ c sherry wine.
Put butter and currant jelly into chafing dish; as soon as melted, add cayenne, wine and ham; simmer 5 min.
SAUSAGES
Cut apart a string of sausages; pierce each sausage several times with a carving fork; put in frying pan, cover with boiling water, and cook 15 min; drain; return to frying pan, and fry until well browned; serve with fried apples. Sausages are often broiled same as bacon and apples baked in pan under them.
MEAT LOAF
1 lb fresh pork, 1 lb veal. 2 lb beef, 1 c bread crumbs, 1 c milk. 1 tbp salt, ⅛ tsp pepper, 3 eggs, slightly beaten.
Chop meat finely, mix, and add remaining ingredients in order given; shape into a loaf; put in pan, and lay across top 6 thin slices fat salt pork; roast in a hot oven 1½ hr, basting every 10 min, at first with ½ c hot water and after that has gone, with fat in pan; remove to platter, pour around tomato or brown sauce and garnish with parsley. One small onion, peeled and finely chopped, may be added.
BREAKFAST BACON (1)
Remove the rind and cut bacon in thin slices; cook in a hot frying pan; turning slices frequently until crisp and brown; drain on a soft paper.
BREAKFAST BACON (2)
Remove the rind and cut bacon in thin slices; place the slices on a broiler over a dripping pan and bake in hot oven until bacon is crisp; turn once during baking; drain on soft paper. Oysters may be wrapped in thin slices of bacon and baked in this way.
FRIED SALT PORK
Remove the rind and cut the pork in ¼″ slices; freshen, if very salt, and fry slowly and evenly until dry. It is used as a garnish for fish, fishballs, tripe, etc.; may be used as a lunch or breakfast dish baked with potatoes and a white gravy made like white sauce; only the fat from the pork is substituted for butter.
BROILED PIGS’ FEET
Wipe, sprinkle with salt and pepper and broil 6 to 8 min; serve with maitre d’hotel butter or sauce piquante.
FRIED PIGS’ FEET
Wipe, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip in crumbs, egg and crumbs; fry in deep fat and drain.
BOILED HAM
Soak in cold water over night or for several hours; scrape, and trim carefully; put in a kettle and cover with cold water; bring gradually to the boiling point and cook slowly until tender; remove kettle from range and set aside that ham may partially cool; then take from water, peel, skin carefully in 2″ strips; make rings or figures with cloves stuck in the crust, brush with beaten egg and dust thickly with fine bread crumbs; brown in the oven; add a paper ruffle to the shank before sending to table; garnish with cauliflower, cabbage, sauerkraut, spinach or some sort of greens.
To glaze ham, after cooking and peeling, brush with beaten egg and coat with paste made of 1 c cracker crumbs, made into a smooth paste with 1 c milk and a tbp of butter; brown in a moderate oven. Some cooks add a tsp of sugar to the bread crumbs; vinegar may be substituted for wine. When either vinegar or wine is used the cook should not put it in an iron pot. In any method the main point is to heat gradually, cook slowly and cool in the liquor.
STUFFED HAM
Soak a 10 or 12 lb ham in cold water over night, in the morning wash and trim carefully; remove the bone and fill with stuffing; sew up the slit where the bone was taken out, and bind the ham firmly in a strong piece of cotton; cook slowly for 3 or 4 hr, and cool in the bandage; when cold, remove the bandage, the rind and the brown fat; sprinkle with sugar and fine crumbs; bake 1 hr in a slow oven.
STUFFING
1 lb chestnuts, 1 can mushrooms, 6 truffles, 1 slice raw ham, 1 egg, 1 oz mustard seed, 2 cucumber pickles, ¼ tsp allspice, ¼ tsp cloves, 2 tbp minced parsley, 2 tbp salt, 1 tbp onion.
Boil the nuts till tender enough to chop fine; cut the truffles into strips and chop all the other ingredients; add seasonings and spices; boil all together with a raw egg.
SAVORY BAKED HAM
1 slice ham (1″ thick or more), 2 tbp mustard, to tbp water, about 1 c milk.
Make a paste of the mustard and water and rub it on both sides of the ham; place ham in baking dish slightly larger; add milk almost to cover and bake in moderate oven until milk is absorbed and the top of the ham is nicely browned. This requires about 45 min.
SCALLOPED HAM-POTATOES
1 slice ham 2″ thick, potatoes, pared and sliced, 1 pt (approximately) milk, chopped parsley.
Cut ham in pieces for service; put in greased pyrex loaf pan or utility dish; pile potatoes on side, and pour in milk; bake in slow oven 1½ to 2 hr; sprinkle with parsley.
VIRGINIA BAKED HAM
Soak ham over night. In the morning scrape and clean well, not forgetting to clean the opening in shank, and through which the string is drawn. Then place ham in pot of boiling water, to which you have added ½ c brown sugar and ½ c vinegar or cider; boil briskly for 10 min, then reduce heat and cook slowly for 2½ hr or until tender; cool and remove skin to near shank end; rub in well over ham 1 tbp dry mustard; insert cloves all over ham at intervals of 2″; place ¼ c of vinegar mixed with sugar in bottom of baking pan, but do not baste ham; bake for about 1 hr. Apricots or prunes placed in pan when baking gives a nice flavor and are delicious served with the ham.
HAMPIQUANT
1 lb thinly sliced cooked ham; 1 tbp mustard, ¼ tsp black pepper, dash of cayenne, ¾ c grated Parmesan or American cheese.
Mix the mustard and seasonings with enough milk to form a thick paste; spread this on the slices of ham and sprinkle each slice with cheese; stack the ham in the shape of a brick and tie with a string; bake for 30 min in a moderate oven, basting occasionally with the ham fat as it runs out into the pan. When cold remove the string and cut in slices downward through the layers.
HAM EN CASSEROLE
Cut potatoes in 1″ balls and put them in a covered dish; season with salt and pepper; cover with milk; over a thick slice of ham sprinkle a little dry mustard and place ham on potatoes; add enough milk to cover; cover and bake in moderate oven 1 hr.
CORN RAGOUT
Cut scraps of ham or bacon in small pieces; fry brown; add 6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and sliced, and the grains cut from 6 ears of corn; cover with boiling water, season with red pepper and salt, and cook slowly ½ hr; serve hot with toast or slices of fried bread.
SAUSAGES (2)
2 lbs sweet potatoes, ½ c sugar, ½ c brown sugar, ¼ c water, 2 tbp fat, 1 tsp salt, 1 lb sausages.
Parboil sweet potatoes 15 min; peel and slice in strips like French fried potatoes; put in a greased baking dish; put sugar, brown sugar, water, fat and salt in a saucepan and boil 3 min; pour syrup over the sweet potatoes; bake in a moderate oven 30 to 40 min; put sausages on top of potatoes; cook ½ hr longer or until potatoes and sausages are tender.
SAUSAGE TURNOVERS
1 c sausage meat, 1 c chopped ham, 1 c cooked rice, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 egg, plain pastry.
Cook sausage meat in a frying pan, slowly, stirring constantly until done, but not browned, about 10 min; drain off fat; add ham, rice and Worcestershire sauce and mix well; add well-beaten egg; roll plain pastry very thin and cut in 4″ squares; put 2 tbp of the meat mixture in the center of each square; moisten edges with water and fold over to form triangles; press edges together with tines of fork, and prick the tops; bake in a hot oven 15 or 20 min.