How To Roast A Pig

Before the pig is laid down to the fire, take a little sage shredded small, a bit of butter of the size of a walnut, with a little pepper and salt; put these into the inside of the pig, and fow up the belly with coarse thread. The fire should burn fiercer at each end than in the middle , or, which will answer the same end, hang a flat iron on the middle of the grate. When you lay the pig down flour it all over very well; this must be repeated all the time till the pig is roasted; that is, till the eyes drop out, or the skin becomes crisp and hard. When the gravy begins to run, set basons or pans in the dripping-pan to catch it. When you think the pig is enough stir up the fire to make it brisk. Then take a coarse cloth, with a quarter of a pound of butter wrapt in it, and rub the pig all over, and before all the crackling becomes crisp; then take it up. After it is laid in the dish, cut off the head with a (harp knife, before the spit is drawn out, and in this manner let the pig be cut in two. Cut the ears off the head and lay one at each end-, cut the under jaw in two, and lay one part on one side and the other on the other. Take the gravy that was saved and put it into some good melted butter; boil them together, and put the brains in, bruised fine; then mix them with the sage and fend the dish to the table.

The time a pig will take in roasting, if just killed, is an hour. If it was killed the day before, it will take an hour and a quarter. If a very large one, an hour and a half.

How To Bake A Pig

Sometimes it may be inconvenient to roast a pig; and therefore it will be necessary to know how to bake one. After having put some sage in the belly, according to the directions for roast ing a pig, lay it in a dish, rub it over with butter, and flour it well; likewise butter the dish and put it into the oven. When it is enough draw it to the oven's mouth, and rub it over with a cloth that has butter in it. Then return it into the oven till it is dry; take it out and lay it in another dish, and cut it up. Take the fat off the dish that it was bak'd in, and there will be some good gravy at the bottom. Take this and mix it with a little veal gravy, and a little piece of butter roll'd in flour. Let the mixture just boil, and then pour it into a dish to the brains and sage that was in the belly.