Roast pork

“ Place pork roast in a covered roasting pan containing a small cup of hot water, season with pepper and salt and sweet marjoram and sprinkle a little powdered sage over it, and stand in a very hot oven. After the meat has been roasting for a half hour, have less heat in your oven, allow about 25 minutes to every pound of pork, or longer if necessary, but be sure it is well done. When served, underdone pork is very unwholesome and unappetizing. ”

“ Also, as a large part of the surface of a pork roast, especially one cut from the shoulder, loin, or ribs, is covered with a layer of fat, pork does not have to be seared to prevent the loss of juice, nor does it have to be put into such a hot oven as that required for beef. In fact, if the temperature of the oven is very high, the outside will finish cooking before the heat has had a chance to penetrate sufficiently to cook the center. While this makes no difference with meat that does not need to be thoroughly cooked, it is a decided disadvantage in the case of pork. ”

“ However, a worth-while roast should weigh at least 3 pounds before it is trimmed and boned.
To roast a tender cut evenly, use a shallow pan with a rack in the bottom of the pan. The hot air moves more freely around the meat than in a pan with high sides. The rack in the bottom of the pan keeps the meat from sticking. Any cheap rack will do.
Start a roast with the fat side up so that it will be a self-baster. Do not add water to the pan and do not cover. Turn the meat from time to time so that all parts will cook evenly.
ROAST PORK SHOULDER
Bone the shoulder. ”

“ Do not place the spit too near the fire, lest the skin should burn and blister. A leg of pork will require from three to four hours to roast. Moisten it all the time by brushing it with sweet oil, or with fresh butter tied in a rag. To baste it with its own dripping will [117] make the skin tough and hard. Skim the fat carefully from the gravy, which should be thickened with a little flour.
A roast leg of pork should always be accompanied by apple-sauce, and by mashed potato and mashed turnips. ”

“ Roast Veal The leg, cushion (thickest part of leg) , and loin, are suitable pieces for roasting. When leg is to be used, it should be boned at market. Wipe meat, sprinkle with salt and pepper, stuff, and sew in shape. Place on rack in dripping-pan, dredge meat and bottom of pan with flour, and place around meat strips of fat salt pork. Bake three or four hours in moderate oven, basting every fifteen minutes with one-third cup butter melted in one-half cup boiling water, until used, then baste with fat in pan. ”

“ Cold meat is of no use for soups or pies. It is better to slice it, and eat it cold—or, better still to give it the poor. Roast beef or mutton, if very much underdone, may be sliced and broiled on a gridiron, and well seasoned with pepper. Cold roast pork is best sliced plain, and eaten cold. Ham also. [194]
VEAL CUTLETS IN PAPERS (en papillotes.) — Make a nice sauce of sweet herbs, bread-crumbs, powdered mace and nutmeg, butter and beaten egg. Lay the cutlets in a deep dish, (having first broiled them and saved the gravy,) pour the sauce over them, with the veal gravy added to it. ”

“ In the country, where, for ordinary consumption, the pork killed for sale is usually both larger and fatter than that supplied to the London consumer, it is customary to remove the skin and fat down to the lean, and, salting that, roast what remains of the joint. Pork goes further, and is consequently a more economical food, than other meats, simply because the texture is closer, and there is less waste in the cooking, either in roasting or boiling. ”

“ Pot roasts are very good for parts of meat not tender enough for roasting, the "cross-rib," as some butchers term it, being very good for this purpose; it is all solid meat, and being very lean, requires a little fat pork, which may be laid at the bottom of the pot; or better still, holes made in the meat and pieces of the fat drawn through, larding in a rough way, so that they cut together. A pot roast is best put on in an iron pot, without water, allowed to get finely brown on one side, then turned, and when thoroughly brown on the other a little water may be added for gravy ”

“ Mutton is good when the flesh is a bright red, firm and juicy and a close grain, the fat firm and white.
Pork, if young, the lean will break on being pinched smooth when nipped with the fingers, also the skin will break and dent; if the rind is rough and hard it is old.
In roasting meat, allow from fifteen to twenty minutes to the pound, which will vary according to the thickness of the roast. A great deal of the success in roasting depends on the heat and goodness of the fire; if put into a cool oven it loses its juices, and the result is a tough, tasteless roast ”

“ Slice half a pound of fat salt pork very thin and bind with soft strings over the breasts and upper parts of the bodies. Lay in a dripping-pan; pour in a cup of boiling water, and roast one hour in a good oven, basting often. Then clip the strings, lay the pork in the pan; dredge the chickens with flour, and, as this colors, baste once with butter, and twice afterwards with gravy. When the chickens are done to a fine brown, lay upon a hot dish with the pork about them. Strain and skim the gravy, pepper it, thicken with a little browned flour and serve in a boat. ”

“ Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and flour.
To roast use open shallow pan, with rack and no water. Keep the oven heat moderate. Start the meat fat side up; turn several times for even cooking. Cook well done.
Roast Fresh Pork Shoulder With Savory Stuffing Select a 5- to 6-pound fresh pork shoulder, skin it, and remove the bones. Make savory stuffing (p. 9) . Sprinkle the meat on the inside with salt, and pepper, and pile in some of the stuffing. Begin to sew the edges of the shoulder together to form a pocket, and gradually work in the rest of the stuffing, but do not pack tightly. ”

“ It should be frequently basted with its own drippings, which flow from the meat when partly cooked, and well seasoned. Lamb, veal and pork should be cooked rather slower than beef, with a more moderate fire, covering the fat with a piece of paper, and thoroughly cooked till the flesh parts from the bone, and nicely browned, without being burned. An onion sliced and put on top of a roast while cooking, especially roast of pork, gives a nice flavor. ”

“ In place of roast meat most families now have to put up with baked meat. Baking in an open pan in a modern range results in the tainting of the meat with the disagreeable flavor of charred fat spattered by the cooking process against the top and the sides of the oven. The oven being unventilated, and not easily washed, the result is a permanent "oven taste" in the roast beef, mutton, veal, pork, or chicken, which is almost as exasperating to a discerning diner as the taint of cold-storage poultry. ”

“ Brisket and flank, used for pickling in salt and smoked bacon.
The cheek is used for pickling in salt, also the shank or shin. The feet are usually used for souse and jelly.
For family use the leg is the most economical, that is when fresh, and the loin the richest. The best pork is from carcasses weighing from fifty to about one hundred and twenty-five pounds. Pork is a white and close meat, and it is almost impossible to over-roast or cook it too much; when underdone it is exceedingly unwholesome. ”

“ Such is the utter blindness of custom and prejudice that in 1899 the daintiest maiden, who might faint at the sight of a mouse, would occasionally smell the stench of a pig-sty, yet, without the least compunction, would sit at table and enjoy a pork chop, pork stew, pork roast, in fact pork in any form. At the mere mention of a horse roast or horse stew, the same delicate young lady would manifest her disdain, and if such dishes were set before her, her indignation might turn into riot. ”

“ Other joints of pork are roasted in the same manner, but do not require stuffing, a loin weighing six pounds requiring two hours and a quarter to roast; a neck of the same size will take about the same time, as will the spare-ribs, which is nothing but the necks of larger pork with the blade-bone cut out and the fat taken off. ”

“ Stir frequently, and when it is smoking hot, turn into a deep-covered dish.
Roast Fawn.
Clean, wash thoroughly; stuff with a good force-meat made of bread-crumbs, chopped pork, pepper and salt, a little grated nutmeg, the juice of a lemon. Moisten with water and cream, bind with beaten egg and melted butter. Sew up the fawn, turning the legs under, and binding close to the body. Cover with thin slices of fat pork, bound on with pack-thread, crossing in every direction, and roast at a quick fire. Allow twenty-two minutes to a pound. ”

“ Pork, to be the best, should not be more than a year old. The chine is the best roasting piece; the spare-ribs are very sweet food, but too rich to be healthy. The shoulder is good roasted, stuffed with bread and sage. If too large, half of it can be laid a week or two in brine, and will be good boiled, to eat cold. It is well for a small family, in November to buy half of a spring pig; this will furnish several nice pieces to roast, strips for salting, a ham and shoulder for smoking, and leaf enough for a pot or two of lard, besides remnants for sausage meat. ”

“ When of a fine brown, and tender and done all through, cover the edges of a large, flat china dish with fresh green parsley and place the pig, kneeling, in the center of the dish. Place in its mouth a red apple, or an ear of green corn, and serve hot with the gravy; or serve cold with grated horse-radish and pickle. Roast pig ought to be evenly cooked, through and through, as underdone pork of any kind, size or age is exceedingly unwholesome. It ought also to be evenly and nicely browned on the outside, as the tender skin when cooked is crisp and palatable. ”

“ Place pork in roasting pan and pepper and salt well. Add one sliced onion, carrot, bay leaf, clove, a little celery and one teaspoonful of whole black peppers. Put in moderate oven and roast for about one and one-quarter hours. Baste often to keep juicy and of a fine color. When done remove from pan, skim part of the fat from the gravy and add one-half spoonful of flour, let simmer till brown, add one cup of stock and boil for a few minutes. ”

“ When the meat has roasted about an hour, flour it thickly, and skewer upon it four or five slices of salt pork. After the flour has become brown, baste the veal every fifteen minutes. If it is very good veal, the pork will flavor it without the addition of any butter; but if not, or if you wish it to be particularly nice, add a small piece of butter to the gravy in the roaster, before you begin to baste the meat. In cutting the incisions, endeavor to make them wider inside than at the surface, so that the stuffing may not fall out. ”

“ It is an improvement to put on slices of pork as in cooking the leg. Allow two hours for roasting; more, if it is large.
Veal Pot Pie.
Take the neck, the shank, and almost any pieces you have. Boil them long enough to skim off all the froth. Make a paste and roll it about half an inch thick. Butter the pot and lay in the crust, cutting out a piece on each side of the circle in such a way as to prevent its having thick folds. Put in a layer of meat, then flour, salt and pepper it, and add a little butter or a slice or two of salt pork, as you choose. Do this until you have laid in all your meat ”

“ The object of first crumbing is to dry the surface that egg may cling to it; and where a thin coating is desired flour is often used in place of crumbs.
Larding is introducing small pieces of fat salt pork or bacon through the surface of uncooked meat. The flavor of lean and dry meat is much improved by larding; tenderloin of beef (fillet) , grouse, partridge, pigeon, and liver are often prepared in this way. Pig pork being firm, is best for larding. Pork should be kept in a cold place that it may be well chilled. Remove rind and use the part of pork which lies between rind and vein. ”

“ Take the very best pork you can get—one-third fat and two-thirds lean—and chop on a block with a kitchen cleaver. When half chopped, season with black pepper, salt and sage, rubbed through a sieve, and then finish the chopping; but do not cut the meat too fine, as in that case the juice of the meat will be lost. Make the mixture up into patties, and fry on a common pan, placed in the oven of the stove, taking care not to cook them hard. Veal is a good substitute for the lean pork in making these sausages, which are much better if made one day before cooking. ”

“ Lean, fresh meat trimmings are employed and some add a small proportion of heart, all chopped very fine. While being chopped, spices and seasoning are added, with a sufficient quantity of salt. The meat employed is for the most part beef, to which is added some fresh or salted pork. When almost completed, add gradually a small quantity of potato flour and a little water. The mixture being of the proper consistency, stuff in beef casings, tie the ends together into rings of fair length and smoke thoroughly. ”

“ Pierce the meat in several places with a knife, and into each hole thus made put a strip of pork; lay the beef in an earthen pan, with a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, four sprigs of parsley, two onions, medium size, with a clove stuck in each, half a blade of mace, half a carrot and turnip, a wine-glass of cooking-sherry, and a gallon of water, with half a salt-spoonful of pepper. The pan should not be much larger than the meat. Cover closely, using a common flour and water paste round the edges to prevent the steam escaping, and set in a good oven three hours. ”