Pigs Pettitoes

Put a thin slice of bacon at the bottom of a stewpan, with some broth, a blade of mace, a bay-leaf, a few peppercorns, and a bit of thyme: boil the feet till they are quite tender: this will take full twenty minutes: but the heart, liver, and lights, will be done enough in ten; when they are to be taken out, and minced fine.

Put them into a stew pan with a little gravy, thicken it with a little butter rolled in flour, season it with a little pepper and salt, set it over a gentle fire; let them simmer for five minutes, shaking them about very often.

While this is doing, have a thin slice of bread toasted very lightly, divide it into sippets, and lay them round the dish: pour the mince and sauce into the middle of it, and split the feet and lay them round it.

N. B. The pettitoes are sometimes fried in batter.

Observations

If you have no gravy in the water you stew the pettitoes in, put an onion, a sprig of lemon thyme, or sweet marjoram, with a blade of bruised mace, a few black peppers, and a large tea-spoonful of lemon pickle; and you will have a very tolerable substitute for gravy.

Bacon

Put a pound of nice streaked bacon into two quarts of boiling water, and let it boil quick for 30 or. 40 minutes; take it up, scrape the under side well, and cut off the rind: grate a crust of bread over it, and put it before the fire for a few minutes; it must not be there too long, or it will dry it too much and spoil it to Two pounds will require an hour, three pounds an hour and a half; the hock or gammon being very thick, will take full a quarter of an hour to a pound more.

Ham

Though of the bacon kind, has been so altered and hardened in the particular way of curing, it requires a very different manner of dressing.

It is generally not half soaked, as salt as brine, and hard as flint: if it is very dry, it must be soaked from 12 to 24 hours: scrape it clean, trim it neatly, and put it into lukewarm water, which will help to mellow it very much. Give it plenty of water; a copper is the best thing to boil it in; put it in while the water is cold, and manage the fire so that it may be three or four hours before it boils: to prevent this, put in a little cold water occasionally, but do not put in so much at a time as to prevent its simmering; keep scumming it carefully all the time: then stir up your fire, and make the water boil slowly, and a middling sized ham will be finished in an hour and a half; a large one in two hours, or a very little more; and it will be very clean, and eat very tender.

Pull off the skin carefully, so as to preserve it as whole as possible, as it will form an excellent covering to keep the ham moist: when you have removed the skin, rub some bread raspings through a hair sieve, or grate a crust of bread over it.

Tongue

A Tongue is so hard, whether prepared by drying or pickling, that it requires much more time, etc. than a ham: nothing, of its weight, takes so long to dress it properly.

A tongue that has been salted and dried, should be put to soak 24 hours before it is wanted, in a large quantity of water; a green tongue fresh from the pickle requires soaking only a few hours; they take nearly the same time dressing. Let your tongue be put into plenty of cold water, and give it from three and a half to four hours very slow simmering, according to its size: about half an hour before it is done, take it up, peel it, and put it into the pot again to finish it; scum the pot frequently while it is doing, and it will come out tender and clean. It is a general rule with some cooks to try if the tongue will peel, and then allow it half an hour after that.