Page:The White House Cook Book.djvu/174

 154 MEATS.

way you avoid all smoke and disagreeable odor. A pound will cook brown in ten minutes in a hot oven.

HEAD CHEESE.

BOIL the forehead, ears and feet, and nice scraps trimmed from the hams of a fresh pig, until the meat will almost drop from the bones. Then separate the meat from the bones, put in a large chopping-bowl, and season with pepper, salt, sage and summer savory. Chop it rather coarsely; put it back in the same kettle it was boiled in, with just enough of the liquor in which it was boiled to prevent its burning ; warm it through thoroughly, mixing it well togther. Now pour it into a strong muslin bag, press the bag between two flat surfaces, with a heavy weight on top; when cold and solid it can be cut in slices. Good cold, or warmed up in vinegar.

TO CURE HAMS AND BACON. (A Prize Recipe.)

FOR each hundred pounds of hams, make a pickle of ten pounds of salt, two pounds of brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, one ounce of red pepper, and from four to four and a half gallons of water, or just enough to cover the hams, after being packed in a water-tight vessel, or enough salt to make a brine to float a fresh egg high enough, that is to say, out of water. First rub the hams with common salt and lay them into a tub. Take the above ingredients, put them into a vessel over the fire, and heat it hot, stirring it frequently ; remove all the scum, allow it to boil ten minutes, let it cool and pour over the meat. After laying in this brine five or six weeks, take out, drain and wipe, and smoke from two to three weeks. Small pieces of bacon may remain in this pickle two weeks, which would be sufficient.

TO SMOKE HAMS AND FISH AT HOME.

TAKE an old hogshead, stop up all the crevices, and fix a place to put a cross-stick near the bottom, to hang the article to be smoked on. Next, in the side, cut a hole near the top, to introduce an iron pan filled with hickory wood sawdust and small pieces of green wood. Having turned the hogshead upside down, hang the articles upon the cross-stick, 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 com- plete. Let a large ham remain ten days, and keep up a good smoke.

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